A/N: In effort to keep pace with Draco38, I present this chapter.

"Sergeant."

Sakamoto rolled uncomfortably on the linoleum flooring. She reluctantly opened one eye to see Corporal Clayton standing over her, a huge grin on his face.

"What's up, Clayton?" she grumbled. "Guh, I hate lying on floors."

The rest of the platoon groaned and grunted as they, too, awoke from uneasy sleep. Despite the warmth of the early summer air, the floors leached the heat from everyone lying on them.

"We are requesting proper racks," Davis muttered as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm getting too old for this rubbish."

"Suck it up, Marine," Sakamoto said. "It's a new day and we have a shit ton of stuff to do and not much time to do it." She turned back to Clayton, still wearing his happy face.

"I got a present for us," Clayton said, barely restraining his excitement.

Sakamoto rolled her eyes as she assembled her platoon. They met up with the rest of the billeted Marines and soldiers at the head of the stairs and cleared away the undisturbed rubble.

"Form up," Sakamoto ordered as they reached the playing field. "The advance column from Japan should be here in ten days time. I want to give them more than a middle school. Can I count on that from you?"

A mingled shout of 'oorahs' and 'hooahs' rose from the mixed Allies. Sakamoto smiled and snapped a salute at the men. "Then get to work!"

Shaun immediately broke from the crowd and instructed the engineers in his command on their next course of action. Clayton again approached Sakamoto.

"What is it, Clayton?"

"I told you, I got a present for us," Clayton chuckled. "Chinook flew in just before you woke up and dropped off a cache."

"And how is this different than what we got?" Sakamoto said as she checked her M4 carbine.

"You'll see," Clayton said as he beckoned Sakamoto to follow. Sighing, she shrugged her shoulders and followed close behind. Shortly, she found herself in front of several weapons boxes of various lengths along with further demolitions charges, rations and ammo crates. Clayton had already pried open one box and seemed anxious for Sakamoto to peer in.

"Oh, fuck me," Sakamoto swooned. She lifted the Benelli M-4 Tactical shotgun to her shoulder and sighted the barrel. "Why didn't you tell me when…no…why didn't you come get me when this came in?"

"Happy Birthday, Sergeant," Clayton said. "I wanted this to be a surprise. Plus there is enough for one in three to carry. The ammo is in the crates over there."

Sakamoto giggled with undisguised glee as she loaded a full magazine and primed the action. "Damn, and nothing to waste right now."

Davis, Edmonds and Sharpe marched up and stood at attention before the cache. Sakamoto regarded her squad and set her sights on Edmonds. "I want you to take this street howitzer as part of your loadout."

Edmonds accepted the shotgun and checked the sights. Sakamoto retrieved another and loaded it. She then directed each man in the party to stock up on magazines, ammo, and take any extra rations they saw fit.

"We're going over the hump," Sakamoto said, pointing to the berm created the first day. "I wanna secure the neighborhood to the west before going to see what the chair farce did with their fucking MOAB."

"Aye aye, Sergeant," her platoon called out in unison.

She led them into the first of the housing, shotgun at the ready, her finger itching on the trigger. The houses lay derelict, doors swinging free on their hinges, adding a soft squeak to the eerie silence. The troop formed into a tight circle, Sakamoto on point, Davis, Clayton and Sharpe on the outsides with Edmonds in the van.

"Sakamoto to Phillips, over," she whispered into her throat mic.

"Phillips here, Over."

"I want you to move off the NW corner of the playing field and secure this row of houses just over the western ridge. Use the dozer to block the road, Over."

"Copy all, Sergeant, Anything else you need, over?"

"You have your orders, Phillips. Sakamoto out."

Shaun and a detachment of US soldiers opened a path through the berm and proceeded onto the small road. Deciding to knock over the northern most house on the lane, the men used it and scraped dirt to secure the north entrance to the shallow gully and the houses along the short lane. The maps in their possession did not point out that said gully was not terribly deep and thus very difficult to secure. The men discovered, to their dismay, that the tree lined ridge to the west of the lane was no more than a few feet high.

"Bugger this for rubbish," Shaun spat. "We'll have to knock all these trees down to make a proper breast work."

The soldier on the dozer looked at the work to be done and considered the very loud noise his machine made.

"If I can get this done in three minutes per tree, it will only take half an hour, tops," he volunteered.

"Do it," Shaun ordered. "Sgt Sakamoto wants this lane, we give her this lane."

The dozer went to work and immediately attracted unwanted attention. The squad formed up with hand tools and chainsaws splitting branches into shoring stakes to secure tree trunks to the low rise.

Sakamoto grimaced as she watched the undead stagger into view and make their way right to the work party.

"Fuck it all," Sakamoto spat as she primed her shotgun. She took careful aim at the nearest corpse and squeezed the trigger. Zed's head disappeared into a fine red mist. "Holy shit, Clayton! What kind of ammo is in this thing?"

Clayton picked up the expended shell. "Number 6 birdshot."

"No time to quibble on ammunition," Davis said. "There are more on the way."

"Davis is right," Sakamoto said. "We move double quick, weapons free."

The platoon gathered on the roadway. "Fire at will," Sakamoto ordered. The men responded with carefully placed shots and cleared their way to the end of the road. They circled onto the ridge between the houses and the school and cleared out back yards.

Sakamoto switched to open comms and toggled her mic. "Sakamoto to any eye in the sky, over."

"Sgt Sakamoto, this is Whiskey Bravo. I have a visual on you, over."

"Relay the coordinates of the MOAB crater to all air units. I want as accurate a map detail as you can get me."

"Roger that, Sakamoto. How soon you want it, over?"

"ASAP, Whiskey Bravo. Once we're done here, I'm going to take the Humvee on a little joy ride to see for myself. We may be able to incorporate the crater into the new defensive line, over."

"Whiskey flight copies 5 by 5, Sakamoto. Anything else you need while were up here, over?"

"I want napalm dropped in as short a line as possible between the sea and the fob. Anything to the north of the planned lines is fair game, over."

"Whiskey flight copies all. Out"

Shaun logged into comms. "Sergeant Phillips to Sergeant Sakamoto, over."

"I have you Phillips, what's up, over."

"We have secured the lane as ordered. Report no casualties, over."

Sakamoto turned to her platoon. "On our way, Phillips. Hold tight, Sakamoto out."

The final sweep of the back yards took a mere few minutes to complete before the platoon found itself behind a fresh wood and dirt berm.

"Good job, men," Sakamoto said as she surveyed the work. "We'll have to see about shoring this up more, but it should do in the short term."

Clayton turned to the Royal Marines. "Y'no, I may dish shit about soldiers not being able to fight, but for this kind of work, I have to give up an 'oorah'."

Davis smirked at the remark. He then gained Sakamoto's attention. "We should work on clearing out these houses. No point in locking Them in with us."

Sakamoto nodded. "All right, you're on me. Clayton, take the British and help out Phillips. You soldiers keep up the good work. I want to press southwest now to the bay. My map shows a walkway through these trees. Do what you gotta do and carry on."

Clayton waved at the Army personnel. "I want to say good job, soldiers. Hooah!"

To a man, the US personnel all waved back and shouted in unison "Oorah, Marines!"

Shaun led the dozer down the path. "I want the concrete torn out, broken up and used for fill," he ordered his engineers. Clayton, Edmonds and Sharpe swept the area in a walking circle, every now and then dispatching a walker.

"How far we got to go?" A soldier asked.

"We don't have far but the hostiles won't surrender," Clayton said. "Maybe one klick…one and a half, tops."

By lunch, the path had been excavated and charges lain. As ordered, the concrete lay in broken piles along the south of the bed. The soldiers and Marines hustled back to the secured housing while the demo team wired the charges to the detonator.

"Fire in the Hole!" the shout went up and everyone hit the deck.

The muffled roar sent dirt and debris everywhere. Shaun peered into his new trench to survey the work.

"Dog Bollocks!" He shouted. "That's just what I wanted to see."

The trench fell away in a near perfect line all the way to the coast road. At a meter deep and nearly three wide, this would delay any zombie and give ample time to clear the trench.

"Alright, I want as much back-fill as possible along the south lip of the trench," Shaun directed. "We just dug the moat, now we make the bailey."

Sakamoto turned to her platoon. "Gentlemen," she said. "We have our primary objective complete. We secured this part of the peninsula. Now the real work of clearing it begins."

"Then let us not waste time," Davis said as he charged his weapon.

Sakamoto smiled then took her team into the buildings lining the south lip of the trench and proceeded to clear each of them.

Sakamoto took her time deciding where to billet the men. With an entire row of nice houses at her disposal, she wanted them rested and off linoleum floors. Tomorrow would be yet another busy day.

"On your feet," Sakamoto ordered. She had been up the lane waking everyone in her party. The men fell in and assembled into a neat line in front of the command house. She set the dozer crew to work on the trench, then pulled Shaun aside. "I want to know where we are on this portion of the lines. Give me a run down."

"Well, the first trench is dug, but it's not terribly deep," Shaun said. "I will need at least two more days to finish the excavations before moving onto the second line."

"Can we start the second while you're digging the first?" Sakamoto asked.

"We could, but I will need the dozer to finish digging this line," Shaun said. "Without it, we are using spades and pick axes."

"Lemme ask you this," Sakamoto said as she surveyed the trench and surrounding houses. "Can we even get a second line through here? This area is pretty built up."

"It's only a matter of knocking structures over," Shaun said. "We clean out every house, salvage everything, then knock the houses down and use the material for whatever we need. Bridges, stockades, you name it."

"Can we expand north?" Sakamoto asked. "Make this the tertiary line?"

"I don't see why not," Shaun replied. "It takes the same effort either way."

"Not if we get the chair force to do most of the blasting for us," Sakamoto smirked. "Get them to lay in a line of heavy ordinance, then we come in and back-fill where we need to."

"That could work," Shaun said. "We just need to make sure they do not disturb what we have already built. I rather dislike having to do a job twice."

Sakamoto toggled her throat mike. "Sakamoto to Captain Bains. I have an idea."