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

outside threat. Lesson learned, but it didn’t help him with this current danger.

He watched for two more hours and all the lights went out. No one left the hotel, so he guessed they went to sleep for the night. His home on the hill was secure, so he decided to get a few hours of sleep himself. Dawn’s light would shine soon, and Big Jim knew an answer to this problem would come with the start of the new day. Better get some rest and eat a good meal so he could face the menace head on afterward.

CHAPTER TENDay Seven

IT HAD ONLY been a week since Big Jim vacationed with Melody in Washington DC. In that one short week, Melody turned into a flesh-eating monster and attacked another visitor at the National Zoo. A nuclear bomb destroyed the city, and everyone who had the misfortune of meeting Jim died along the way. Now he had a home in Wheresville Valley, Tennessee, and things had looked up until the five thugs came into the town yesterday. Jim needed a plan with decisive action to neutralize this new threat and take back his town.

The pickup truck remained in the same spot it occupied the previous evening, but all four tires were now flat. Jim chuckled to himself but recognized the danger at the same time. He was certain the three teenagers performed this vandalism since he knew of no other residents. Now these five armed men would be pissed off and looking for revenge. So much for them moving on today with no conflict as Jim originally hoped. Next time he would visit the police station first when he arrived in a new town to kit himself out with decent weapons.

Big Jim pondered the proper actions while he ate his breakfast. He needed a plan which preserved his element of surprise and used the weapons he had available to him. There wasn’t a straightforward solution. Jim finished his breakfast and went upstairs to get a status update from the balcony.

Four ATVs pulled up outside of a commercial warehouse building in the far corner of the town. They descended a rocky mountain trail before they parked in front of the massive structure. Great, now what? Jim watched as three men and one woman climbed off their off-road vehicles. Two of the three men carried rifles while the woman and the third man carried pistols. On second thought, the third man looked to be a teenager. The town had been empty, but now it brimmed with life and everyone looked ready to fight.

Movement out of the corner of his eye drew Jim’s attention to three figures sneaking through the morning’s shadows. Three teenagers carried their makeshift weapons and slinked toward the newcomers. He remembered their threats against him, and Jim hoped they weren’t stupid enough to take on armed opponents. They were stupid enough to flatten the tires on the redneck’s pickup truck, so he knew the answer.

Shouts grabbed Jim’s attention for a third time. He looked toward the hotel and found the five men from the previous evening discovering the damage done to their pickup truck. Their eyes turned toward the assembling crew at the corner of town. The newcomers weren’t operating in stealth mode, and these punks were aware of their presence. All five losers drew their weapons and headed to the party.

“Shit!”

As Big Jim saw it, he had three options, and none were too attractive. He could wait and watch. The three groups would come together, and battle, and Jim could wait for the victor to emerge. There would be fewer enemies to face, and it would assure his ultimate victory. Problem was, he wouldn’t be able to look at himself in the mirror because they weren’t all his enemies. They were just a scared bunch of people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Jim could load up the GTO or the F150 and run away. It would be the safe move, at least for the short term. Big Jim didn’t run from a fight though, so this option was out before he could even consider it.

His third choice was to run straight into the fight, guns blazing. He didn’t have the best equipment for this fight, but he knew it would be the only choice he could live with. Jim would target the five men from the pickup truck and hope for the best. They presented the largest threat in his mind. The teenagers didn’t carry any guns, but the newcomers on the ATV did. Big Jim had no clue if the ATV riders were dangerous or not. A tank would be helpful for this fight, but he lacked one. Then the solution to his problem came to him.

###

Jim had left the electric bike on charge, so it was ready to ride. No one would hear him coming because it made no noticeable noise. A silent electronic drivetrain, but his stealth approach wouldn’t go unnoticed for long. He almost settled for the dump truck, but the loud diesel engine would have given him away once it started. This quiet option would provide him a little more time before he revealed himself to the army of five. Any advantage in this fight would be worth taking.

This plan of his would work better with a bulldozer, but he only had the backhoe. The Public Works building didn’t contain a bulldozer, so that wasn’t even an option. Jim had left the backhoe parked in an alley a few blocks away from where the battle formed and no one had discovered it. A point for Big Jim. As he reached for the key to start the engine, the gunfire erupted.

The backhoe’s diesel engine roared to life as the gunfire intensified. Jim hoped the noise might mask his approach on the machine. He lifted the bucket to just below eye level and set off toward the exchange. A backhoe was good for about 20 miles per hour, so it felt like hours before Big Jim