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
