“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, chest 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.”
Davila raised an eyebrow. “Where are we headed?”
“The bridge is seven, eight blocks due west of here,” Jinx replied. “Mostly through residential areas. When that crowd starts moving north, we haul ass towards the bridge.”
Jarvis nodded. “Rally point?” she asked.
The Corporal shook his head. “No clue,” he admitted, “but it’ll be on this side of the bridge. We’ll be on the lookout for you, so we’ll signal when you are getting close.”
She nodded again and turned to Burch. “You want shotgun, or in the back?”
“You’re not going to let me drive?” he asked, putting a hand on his chest in mock offense.
Jarvis put a hand on her hip. “I’ve seen you in the shower, and unless you have a boyfriend you aren’t telling us about, it’s obvious you have no experience handling anything big,” she quipped. “Now come on.”
Burch simply shook his head as the others snickered, unable to come up with a viable comeback. He climbed up into the passenger seat as the engine roared to life, rumbling loudly before settling into a nice rhythm.
“We’ll see you at the bridge soon,” Jarvis said through the window, and then popped the truck into gear and peeled out. She did an impressive burnout as she drove the behemoth out from the lot and onto the road.
“Okay, we give them five minutes, then we move,” Jinx said, folding up the map and putting it back in his pocket. “In the meantime, we gotta give the other teams a heads up.” He pulled out his walkie talkie.
“Let’s just hope they are in a position to hear it,” Davila said. He pointed into the air, signaling the constant stream of gunfire in the distance.
CHAPTER FIVE
Jarvis drove up to the main road, zombies streaming out from the main part of the neighborhood. “Need you to keep your eyes peeled,” she said.
“For what?” Burch asked.
“Anything we can use to draw these things away,” she replied as she reached the top of the street. She barely paused as she cut the corner tight, and the truck rolled over the edge of the sidewalk, taking out two zombies easily.
Jarvis let out a satisfied yell as the creatures flew backwards onto the grass. The main road was littered with ghouls, all moving towards the ship. There were about a hundred or so stretching out several hundred yards, with more coming out from the side streets. She put the pedal to the metal, prompting Burch to hold on to the ‘oh shit’ handle at the top of the door.
“This is gonna get bumpy,” she warned, and began weaving back and forth on the road, cutting a path through the spread out zombies.
Bodies flew everywhere, some crushed beneath the gigantic tires. There were so many smacks on the vehicle that it sounded like a high school band drum section that was horribly out of sync.
Burch looked down every side street as they went, seeing they were fairly packed as well. When they crossed the fourth road, he straightened up.
“Stop stop stop!” he yelled.
Jarvis slammed on the brakes, skidding to a halt and smacking into a few more zombies. “What is it?” she asked.
“Back it up!” Burch instructed.
She threw the truck into reverse and went back until he held up a hand, and they were parallel with the
