Private Jarvis furrowed her brow. “Have I been in a coma?” she asked, pointing her fork at him. “Because I totally missed when they promoted you to Captain.”
Jinx barked a laugh. “Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t my idea.” He put up his hands in surrender. “I mean, let’s be honest, if it was, there would be more explosions.”
“This is true,” Jarvis agreed.
“So, is that all we’re doing is running around, blowing shit up?” Private Rollins asked, the fluorescent lights shining off of his dark, bald head.
“You say that like there’s anything else to do in life,” Burch quipped.
Rollins shrugged. “I mean, I can work with it, but it would be nice to have a solid objective,” he admitted.
“Don’t worry, we got one,” Jinx assured them. “Long story short is that we have to get to the other side of town, pull a whole mess of zombies across some bridges, and then block them off. Nothing we haven’t done before.”
Jarvis shook her head. “Again, coma,” she said. “When in the hell did we lure zombies somewhere?”
“How many men have you lured back from the bar in your day, Jarvis?” Davila asked innocently.
She shot him a sheepish smile. “I withdraw the question.”
The table erupted in laughter, and Jinx got to his feet.
“Where you off to, Corporal?” Burch asked.
His superior inclined his head to the door. “Going to see if I can procure us some extra provisions,” he explained. “As for you five, finish up, grab your gear, and be up on deck in twenty.”
His team nodded, and he headed off to make some last minute preparations.
CHAPTER THREE
Jinx led the group up to the deck, joining the other two teams standing at the top. Odom stood there with them, along with a few other troops who were making preparations on the rappelling lines that were being connected to the railings.
Jinx raised an eyebrow at the line, which was made of chain link. “Sparing no expense for us, Captain?” he asked.
“So much stuff was cast overboard to make room for more soldiers that this is all we could scrounge up,” Odom explained. “Four chains.”
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
