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 the 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.”
“All right boys,” Jarvis declared, clapping her hands together, “hop in, we’re going car shopping.” She got into the driver’s seat and shot Jinx a salute. “See you soon.” Once the other two were secure, she did a burnout, kicking up dirt as she sped off towards the retail area in search of cars.
The three remaining soldiers coughed, waving their hands in front of their faces to avoid breathing in the dust.
“That’s on you, Burch,” Davila gasped.
“Yeah I know,” he replied, “just couldn’t resist.”
Jinx whirled a hand above his head. “Train tracks, let’s do it,” he said, and led his team across the vacant lot to the property line.
They looked out towards the Super Center, the massive store sitting no more than thirty yards from the water, which ran on both the back and left side of the store. Two hundred yards to the north was the rail bridge, a rusted out truss bridge stretching over the water. There were a handful of zombies on their side of the bridge, which was a far cry from the transportation bridges half a mile further to the north.
Jinx pulled out the binoculars and scanned, letting out a low whistle as he did. “That doesn’t look like fun,” he muttered, and handed off the device to Davila.
The Private peered through the binoculars, checking out the bridges packed with hundreds of zombies each, easily close to a thousand between the two. “Yeah, that rail bridge is a good call,” he said, lowering the device. “But how are we going to pull them off of it and over to the store?”
Jinx smirked and reached into his bag. “Remember how I said I got us a few things for the mission?”
“Yeah?” Davila raised an eyebrow.
Jinx pulled out a hand grenade, tossing one over to his teammate.
A grin broke out on Davila’s face. “Oh now we’re cooking,” he declared.
“Figure it should be loud enough to draw them over to us,” Jinx said, “maybe take out a fast food joint or two in the process.”
Burch nodded. “Find one of those flame grilled places and set off the gas, too.”
Jinx rubbed his hands together. “Let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get into.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jinx led the trio across the bridge, Davila playfully walking along the rail like a kid balancing. The other two strolled across the beams, enjoying the brief bit of quiet before the coming battle.
“Man, I used to do this all the time when I was younger,” Davila said as he moved gracefully across the rail. “My brothers and I would walk for miles on the tracks, even going over to the next town some days.”
Jinx shook his head. “I had the benefit of growing up in a neighborhood where I was the youngest kid by about five years,” he said. “So when the rest of the kids hit high school, my only options were to wander around alone or play video games.”
“What did you pick?” Burch asked.
“If Jinx ever bets he can beat your Galaga high score,” Davila cut in, “just save time and hand over your money.”
The Corporal shrugged. “On the plus side, my hand-eye coordination is next level.”
“What about you, Burch?” Davila asked, stretching out his arms to keep his balance. “Happy-go-lucky childhood, or sad glowing screen childhood?”
Burch
