“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
