Operation Z by Szepanski, G.D. (well read books .txt) 📗

it lunged again at Jim. He brought up the Mossberg and fired, hitting the zombie in the chest. The zombie staggered for a second, which allowed Jim to pump a second shell into the receiver. Jim fired a second time and melted its face with the buckshot.

Two threats neutralized in about ten seconds. Big Jim cleared the rest of the garage area and found no other dead men walking. The town’s population of the living may not be increasing, but the population of the dead had decreased thanks to Jim.

Big Jim found the keys to all the equipment in the office area. The backhoe sat on a trailer hooked to the dump truck parked in the middle bay. It was a similar model to the backhoe his brother Judd had on the farm, so Jim would have no problem operating it. He started by burying the three bodies at the public works building and then headed into town to dispose of the rest of his kills. By time he finished body disposal duty, the sun had dropped in the sky.

After another quick stop at the grocery store, Jim returned home for the evening. He smiled, looking back at the highlights of the day. Wheresville Valley, Tennessee, had a much smaller population of the dead. Jim wouldn’t be able to eliminate them all himself unless he walled the place in. Other survivors were living in town too, so Jim wasn’t alone. Now he had to build trust with the group so he could help them.

CHAPTER NINEDay Six

BIG JIM AWOKE with the rising sun feeling well rested and ready to face another day in his adopted town of Wheresville Valley, Tennessee. The Weather Network stopped broadcasting almost a week ago, so Jim had to read the morning sky to determine the day’s forecast. A mostly clear baby blue sky had the first indications of dark clouds forming. Wonder what Al Ricker would say about the day?

There were a few random zombies roaming the town, and Jim estimated the number to be around ten. It had been an improvement from the previous day, so Jim’s efforts of cleaning up the town had paid off. Now he needed to figure out how to make the town secure to keep the monsters out. He had some ideas on how, so Jim needed to visit the town’s garage again today.

Breakfast this morning included bacon and eggs pilfered from the grocery store. A tremendous improvement after eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the last few mornings. The food would start to spoil soon and then would run out, so Jim had to work to locate additional food sources. Good thing he grew up on a corn farm and understood how to grow his own food. Jim had to secure the area before he could start farming because an unprotected field would be a target for both unfriendly humans and the wandering dead.

Before heading out to start the day’s work, Jim took one last look at the town from the balcony off his bedroom. Besides, the roaming zombies from earlier, there was nothing new to see. Wonder what happened to those three teenagers? When they ran off, it disappointed Big Jim because he knew strength came in numbers and those three lacked the skills needed for long-term survival.

He had left the backhoe parked in town last night and drove the dump truck back to the house. Jim would love to take the GTO out for a joy ride again, but he stuck with the big truck instead. As he drove down the hill, Jim ran down a group of three zombies who staggered down the road. The dump truck made quick work as it squashed the monsters into pulp. Seeing the street pizza in the truck’s mirror caused Jim to laugh out loud. It was messy but quick work, eliminating the roaming packs of zombies with his new toy. He’d clean up the mess later in the afternoon after he did some work on upgrading the town’s security.

When Jim visited the Wheresville Valley, Tennessee Public Works building the day before, he noticed a school bus depot next door. He parked the dump truck out front and let himself into the small office building. In reality, calling it a shack would be more accurate, but Jim knew he would find the bus keys inside. The same key, his large booted foot, he used on the public works building opened this door too. Convenient to have all the doors in town keyed alike. This thought made Big Jim laugh again.

Inside the shack, he found a small counter that ran along the front of the space with one closed door beyond the office area. An empty bathroom sat behind the closed door. Behind the counter, Jim found a locked metal cabinet with a sign reading “Keys” on it and a large white board with bus numbers, an In or Out magnet, and a driver name field. The numbers 1 to 25 identified each of the buses parked in the lot. It was a low-tech but efficient system to track the buses.

A quick blow to the cabinet’s door revealed 25 sets of keys. Big Jim grabbed a set from the enclosure and headed outside to find the bus they belonged to. Their tracking system may have used low technology means, but they had been well organized. The key fob marked #1 fit the bus parked in the spot labelled #1, and it was the first bus in line.

“Nice!”

Last night, Jim had looked at the paper map and found five major roads that led into town. They were Main Street, Park Avenue, Oakwood Road, Chestnut Avenue, and Greenway Road. His plan was to use the school buses to form a blockade on each road before they reached the downtown area. These roadblocks would be moveable but would keep vehicle traffic out of the town. At least it would prevent people from entering the town easily. Jim would use the heavy equipment from