Jarvis shook her head. “That’s what you get for playing in a shitty band.”
“Hey now, I…” Stein began, but then shook his head. “Yeah, you’re right, we were shitty.”
Jinx pulled out the walkie talkie, raising it to his lips. “Dickerson, do you copy?”
“Jinx, where are you?” the Sergeant replied immediately. “Not sure how much longer we can hold out. The front door is starting to crack under the pressure.”
The Corporal peered out at the crowd. “We’re across the street.”
“All right,” Dickerson replied. “First order of business is going to be moving some of these fuckers away from the door. Too many are pushing on it, and we can’t hold it up much longer.”
“Ten-four,” Jinx said. “Give me a minute to come up with a plan.”
“Understood,” the Sergeant replied. “We ain’t going anywhere.”
The Corporal lowered the radio, studying the area. “Ideas?”
“We got some fireworks left, we can try and peel them away,” Burch suggested.
Jinx shook his head. “Too many of those things are engaged, they aren’t going to break away for some firecrackers,” he said.
“We could fire the roman candles into the crowd?” Stein piped up. “Start lighting some of them up?”
Jinx pursed his lips for a moment. “That’s a plan of last resort,” he replied. “On the one hand, it might work, but on the other hand it might set the house on fire.”
“With our luck it would be the latter,” Stein muttered.
“I could plow the truck through them,” Jarvis suggested. “If I build up enough speed I should be able to make it from one side to the other, cut their numbers in half.”
Burch shook his head. “But that would only be temporary,” he said. “Plus, if you don’t make it across, we’d have to walk back, and I’m already getting enough exercise for the day.”
“So you don’t want to do my plan because you’re a lazy fucker?” She raised an eyebrow.
He shrugged. “And because it’s a temporary solution.”
Jinx studied the landscape, paying special attention to a large thick tree on the other side of a fence that was parallel to the horde and just up from the front of the house. “I like the idea,” he said.
Burch blinked at him. “Really?” he asked. “You want to risk the truck?”
“Nope, and we’re not going to,” the Corporal replied, shaking his head. “But I like the idea of cutting their numbers in half.”
Jarvis raised an eyebrow. “So if we’re not going to use the truck, how are we going to do it?”
Jinx smirked and pointed towards the giant tree he’d spotted. “Who wants to be a lumberjack?”
Jarvis put a hand to her forehead, laughing in exasperation. The other two shook their heads in disbelief.
“All right,” Burch finally said, smacking his thighs as he stood up. “I’ll check the garage.”
Stein jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Pretty sure we passed a work shed on the last block, I’ll go check that,” he said.
“I’ll let Dickerson know what the plan is,” Jinx said.
Jarvis snorted. “That should be a fun conversation.”
The Corporal chuckled as he lifted the radio to his mouth. “Dickerson, come in,” he said. “We have a plan.”
CHAPTER TEN
“Are you out of your fucking mind?!” the Sergeant demanded.
Jinx shrugged. “Might have been accused of that from time to time,” he drawled. “Nothing was ever proven, though.”
“Jokes. You got jokes,” Dickerson snapped. “That’s great.”
“Look, there’s only four of us with limited resources,” Jinx shot back. “We’re in a serious ticking time bomb scenario right now, and I have the only pair of wire cutters, as it were. If you have a better idea, I’m all ears, but unless I’m mistaken, if that idea takes longer than ten minutes, you and your boys are toast.”
There was a long pause on the line before the Sergeant finally asked, “Have you even ever cut down a tree before?”
“No,” Jinx admitted sheepishly, “but I watched a lot of those lumberjack competitions at two A.M. on ESPN Two back in the day. Pretty sure I got the angle concept down.”
There was a torrent of gunfire from the house, and then Dickerson came back. “Fuck it man,” he said. “Do what you gotta do.”
“We’re on the move, good luck, Sarge,” Jinx said.
“Same to you,” Dickerson replied.
The Corporal put the walkie talkie away and he and Jarvis stood up. As they walked to the back door, Burch entered, hands empty.
“Nothing?” Jinx asked.
Burch shook his head. “Not even a lawnmower,” he replied. “Guess whoever lived here was livin’ high on the hog and hiring someone to cut the grass.”
“Good life if you can get it,” Jarvis added.
Stein came busting in through the back door, holding a giant chainsaw above his head. “Leatherface bitches!” he cried. “Yeah!” He waved it around for a moment and then lowered his arms when he realized nobody was reacting. “I mean… Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Nobody?”
“Chainsaw killers are a lot more effective when the saw is actually on,” Jarvis said, crossing her arms.
Stein’s shoulders slumped, and he held out the weapon to Jinx.
“Okay, we’re moving three houses up, cutting across the street, and working our way back,” the Corporal said as he took the chainsaw. “From this vantage point, the yard looks pretty clear, as that fence is holding them back. That’s probably going to change real quick once I fire this thing up.” He motioned to the soldiers as he spoke. “Jarvis, you cover our rear, Stein and Burch, you clear out as many of those things beside the house as you can. If this thing lands right, we may only have a short window to get them out. Everybody clear?”
At the affirmative, he nodded and led the group outside. He ran up several houses as quickly as he could, adrenaline pumping with the clock. He peered around the corner of the third house, seeing that the road and yard straight across was clear.
Jinx darted out, carrying the chainsaw upwards while the others kept their assault rifles aimed and ready. They got across the street without any problems and moved across the front yards of the houses, working their way back to the tree.
When they reached the target yard, they hopped the four-foot tall wooden fence, landing safely in the private yard. As Jinx rushed over to the tree, the others did a quick sweep to make sure the area was clear.
The Corporal took a knee, readying the chainsaw, waiting for his team to get in position. Once they gave him the all-clear, they all braced to unleash fury.
Jinx pulled the starter cord on the saw and it roared to life, but then fell silent. The noise was enough to attract the attention of several of the zombies on the other side of the fence. They turned, moaning and pressing themselves against the wood. Jinx pulled the cord a second time, failing again, and Stein and Burch opened fire, popping off in three-round bursts, dispersing hot lead in a wide arc and dropping several of the ghouls.
“Come on, you piece of shit,” Jinx muttered, and gave the cord another hard pull. This time, the engine snarled to life, and he hit the throttle a few times, revving it up to make sure it stayed on. As soon as it was steady, he picked it up and put the hammer down.
The blade pierced the bark of the tree, and he cut straight down, creating a large notch in the front of it. Then he got to work on the base.
Jarvis kept a watch on their rear as the Corporal worked, popping off a few shots as some zombies started trying to come over the fence at the top of the yard. As she fired, the other two continued to unload on the horde, both of them clearing out a full mag each and reloading, leaving a pile of corpses beside the house and directly in front of it.
Jinx managed to get the saw most of the way through the tree and noticed it starting to collapse into the notch he’d cut out. He turned the chainsaw off and stood
up.
“Timber!” he yelled.
Burch and Stein sprinted away from the falling tree, leaping to either side as the big thing sailed into the neighboring yard. Jinx had been hoping for it to fall diagonally across, but his cutting wasn’t up to par, and it tumbled straight across.
“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” he muttered as he watched it fall across the fence into the other yard, crushing through a row of zombies no more than five feet from the front of the house.
The gutters at the far end of the house ripped clean with the branches, but no other major damage was done to the house.
“Oh hell yeah!” he bellowed. “Just like I planned!”
The zombies were only two deep in front of the house, and the trunk was large enough to create a decent barrier from the rest of the horde.
Jinx pulled out the walkie talkie. “Dickerson, get a move on!” he yelled. “Move to our position!”
Burch and Stein concentrated their fire on either side of the tree, which had damaged the wooden fence a bit, thankfully not so much that the zombies could push through.
“Jarvis, clear in front of the house!” Jinx barked.
She turned her attention towards the house, aiming straight down the line and opening fire in single shots, picking off one ghoul after another like a carnival game.
The Corporal smirked, starting the chainsaw back up and leaning over the fence on the roadside. He stretched over, working his way towards the road, cutting into rotted necks with the blade, sending gore and blood everywhere. This was short lived, as the chainsaw quickly got mucked up with bone, stalling out.
Jinx dropped the saw, having enjoyed the small pleasure, and then glanced over at the door to see Dickerson emerge with his troops. Torrents of bullets cleared a path, and they hopped down into the gully between the house and tree, racing towards the fence.
Jinx and Jarvis reached over to help them over one by one, and the six soldiers escaped certain doom, hopping over to relative safety.
“Come on, our truck is a few blocks away,” the Corporal said, waving them over.
Dickerson nodded and he and his team followed the group out of the yard, hopping over the fence on the other side. The ten soldiers raced through the neighborhood, running through yards and quickly losing the horde that had been in pursuit.
After several minutes of hard running, they arrived at the truck, thankfully with no zombies around. The soldiers all caught their breaths, letting out some disbelieving laughter at their luck.
“I gotta say Jinx,” Dickerson huffed, “you don’t disappoint.”
The Corporal grinned. “Glad I could be of service, Sergeant,” he replied. “Everybody make it out okay?”
“All six of my team are safe and sound,” Dickerson replied, straightening up.
“And I got to check off a bucket list item,” Jinx declared. “So it’s a win-win.”
The Sergeant chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to carve up zombies with a chainsaw, too,” he admitted.
“No, I’m talking about being a lumberjack,” Jinx said with a wink. “Could never get a full beard to grow in, so I had to abandon that dream.”
Dickerson lost it, laughter exploding from his belly. “You’re a fucking wild man,” he gasped, smacking his friend on the shoulder. “Never change.”
“Can we drop you boys off somewhere?” Jinx asked, patting the side of the truck.
The Sergeant shook his head. “I think we can take it from here,” he said. “You get back to doing what you were doing.” He extended his hand, and the men shook hands. “I won’t forget this. I definitely owe you one.”
“Given the shit I get myself into, I can all but guarantee I’ll need to call that in sooner rather than later,” Jinx replied.
“Be safe,” Dickerson said. “We’ll see you on the march to Olympia.”
Jarvis hopped up into the driver’s seat and started it up, the rest of Jinx’s team clambering into the back. The Corporal smacked the side, and she took off, leaving Dickerson waving to them as they peeled out.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jarvis drove down the residential streets towards the rally point. As they went, the soldiers could see large plumes of smoke rising in the distance, with the occasional firework or brick of firecrackers detonating as well.
They looked down the side streets, seeing straggler zombies, but none of them in packs greater than five, wandering towards the noise and smoke.
As Jarvis reached the turnoff road, she looked both ways. Back towards the bridge there were a couple hundred zombies, all moving across the road into the neighborhood. Hope flared in her chest that the distraction was working.
The other direction was a little more sparse, as the noise from the distractions were waning a little at that point. She made the turn, speeding off towards the rally point. After several blocks, she stopped at the corner of an intersection.
Davila and Rollins waved at them from a playground swing set in front of the school. They were the picture of relaxation, swinging lightly back and forth. They hopped down and headed for the truck as their teammates exited the vehicle.
“Looks like Operation Arson was a roaring success,” Jinx said as he hit the pavement.
Davila grinned. “Yep, got a lot of those fuckers burning,” he declared. “Made sure the houses we picked didn’t have overhanging trees to try to limit the damage to the neighborhood as a whole.”
“Good thinking,” the Corporal replied, cocking his head. “Any houses with gas?” he asked.
Right as the words left his mouth, there was a gigantic explosion in the distance, and they all turned to look at a fireball shooting up into the air over the trees.
“Just one,” Rollins said.
Jinx nodded in appreciation. “If nothing else, I have timing,” he said.
“How did it go with Dickerson?” Davila asked.
Burch raised his hands above his head. “Jinx saved the day by going full lumberjack.”
“Bucket list item,” Davila replied with a smirk, “I like it.”
“Day’s not over yet,” Jinx cut in, “you still got time to make some off your list.”
Burch barked a laugh. “He just burned down an entire neighborhood worth of houses,” he said, “he should be good.”
“Hey now,” Davila piped up with mock offense, “why would you think that’s on my bucket list?”
Burch rolled his eyes. “We’ve all heard you talk about the horrors of suburbs,” he pointed out.”
“Eh, fair,” Davila admitted.
“Hop in,” Jinx said, motioning to the truck, “we gotta get to the main target. We should be close enough to it now to draw any zombies on this side to it.”
The soldiers climbed up and Jarvis drove through the back half of the residential area, Davila and Rollins lighting fireworks and tossing them over the side in an attempt to pull the ghouls in their direction.
After several blocks, the residential area turned into retail, with small shops dotting the landscape alongside a few mini-malls. Zombie infestation was moderate in that area, the parking lots only having groups of twenty to thirty.
Jinx motioned for them to stop throwing out fireworks, as the truck noise seemed to be attracting enough that they could handle. There was a huge vacant lot on the far south of town, and Jarvis pulled into it. It was a corner lot, with the main river to the south and the smaller river running to the north. There was no resistance nearby, with the zombies on the bridges or congregating around buildings.
As soon as the truck came to a halt, Jinx, Davila, and Rollins quickly hopped out, rushing towards the five zombies in the lot and quickly dispatching them with their knives.
The Corporal was particularly vicious, running at full speed towards the first one and jamming his blade through its eye and shoving it straight out the back, breaking the skull open. He moved in a single motion, stabbing into the forehead of the one behind it.
With the lot relatively secure, the group rallied in th
e back of the truck. Jinx pulled out the satellite image of the immediate area and pointed to it as he spoke.
“Okay, listen up,” he began, “to our south here is the bridge going over whatever major river that is. To be blunt, that’s someone else’s problem. To our north are two commuter bridges that cross over into what looks like Super Center island, because that’s all that’s there. We have to get over there, create a hell of a ruckus, pull as many of those things over as we can, and escape via the water. We also have to block off the bridges with whatever cars we can find.”
Jarvis pointed to another bridge over the river that looked darker than the obvious commuter bridge. “Any idea what this thing is”
“Best guess is a rail bridge,” Jinx replied with a shrug. “Not exactly conducive for zombies to get over, but could be our ticket across the river.”
Davila nodded thoughtfully. “So what do you think?” he asked. “Two teams? One on cars, one on diversion.”
“Works for me,” Jinx agreed. “Jarvis, why don’t you play escort around the town?”
Burch grinned. “Not the first time she’s been an escort around town.”
“One more word,” Jarvis said, pointing a finger at him, “and I will bend you over the back of this truck.”
Jinx laughed. “I’ll give her the time too, just to see it happen,” he offered.
“I withdraw the previous insult,” Burch replied, raising his palms in surrender.
The Corporal shook his head. “Well Burch, I think for your own safety, you’ll be coming with me and Davila to the Super Center,” he said with a chuckle. “Jarvis, you drive Rollins and Stein around to find some cars. Stash them across the street from the bridge so we can move them quickly once we get enough of those things over the bridges. Questions?”
“Yeah,” Jarvis said, “where are we meeting once we get this done?”
Jinx pointed to the map. “Just across the southern bridge, there is some sort of store,” he explained. “Get inside and get to the roof. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m ready to relax, so let’s knock this out.”
Dead America The Northwest Invasion | Book 6 | Dead America-Seattle [Part 4] Page 5