Sergeant Dickerson led a squad several hundred strong across the southern bridge, ignoring the stray zombies his men took care of for him. He looked at the grocery store across the way, looking beautiful in the evening light, and spotted the truck that Jarvis had been driving earlier in the day.
He shook his head at the mountain of dead zombies around the vehicle. “I think we found them,” he said.
“Sir?” the soldier next to him asked.
“Come on,” Dickerson said, “let’s go make sure they’re safe.” He motioned for a few soldiers to follow him as the rest of the force moved into the southern portion of town.
They carefully stepped through the sea of corpses on the way to the front door, and the Sergeant’s heart leapt into his throat at the sight of smoke coming out of the seams. He rushed up and banged on it.
A moment later, Burch appeared, waving smoke away, and when he locked eyes with Dickerson he grinned and opened the door, a flood of smoke billowing out.
“What the hell is going on in here?” the Sergeant asked, walking inside.
Burch held up a metal spatula, motioning to the charcoal grill behind him. The others waved, kicking back in chairs with their feet propped up on checkout lanes.
Dickerson laughed, shaking his head.
“Sergeant!” Jinx bellowed, spreading his arms. “Welcome. Can we get you something? Lukewarm beverage? Something from the grill?”
Dickerson put a hand to his forehead in disbelief, still laughing. Right in the middle of the biggest invasion in U.S. history was a cluster of soldiers having a cookout.
“Jinx, it’s been nearly a month since this place had a fresh delivery or power,” he declared, “so I’m afraid to ask what you’re cooking up.”
Burch used a pair of tongs to hold up a slice of canned meat, grilled to perfection. “This stuff takes forever to go bad,” he said. “Pretty sure the secret is to coat it in a metric ton of salt.” He slapped it down onto a tortilla that looked slightly stale and handed it to Dickerson.
The Sergeant reluctantly took it. “Guess I should enjoy this now,” he conceded, “since it’s going to be awhile before I have anything like this.”
“That’s the spirit!” Jinx exclaimed. “We work hard, we play hard, right?”
Dickerson took a bite of the food and nodded in surprise at the decent flavor. “Well, just don’t play too hard,” he said after he swallowed, “because the Captain is going to be here within the hour.”
“Is that your way of telling us to take it easy for a bit?” Jinx asked as his friend gobbled down the rest of the taco.
The Sergeant shrugged, wiping his mouth. “I do owe you one for earlier today,” he admitted. “We’ll finish clearing it out, just do me a favor, will you?”
“Sure thing,” the Corporal replied, curling his hands behind his head comfortably.
“Save another one of these tacos for me,” Dickerson said. “I’ll be back soon.”
Jinx raised a plastic cup filled with an unknown substance to his friend as he headed out the door. “Everybody, listen up,” he said to his team. “Each and every one of you did a hell of a job today. We keep this up, we might just live to see this thing through.” He raised his cup high. “On to Olympia!”
The others raised their own cups and bellowed, “On to Olympia!”
END
Up Next - Private Janey Watts finds herself trapped behind enemy lines when a mission to the north goes horribly wrong in “Seattle - Part 5”.
