Operation Z | Novella | Everyone Dies

by Szepanski, G. D.

  Within a few minutes of the thugs entering the hotel, the side door opened, and three compact figures ran out. Jim recognized the three teenagers from the grocery store encounter. He wanted to help them out once they met, and now he had his chance. All he needed was a plan using the resources he had on hand. If he only had the three other team members from his Problem Solver days, this wouldn’t be an issue. No sense wishing for resources from a past life he couldn’t have anymore.

  He watched the three figures run down the block and around the corner onto the next street. They made a beeline for a large stone building with a sign out front which read, “Wheresville Valley Public Library.”

  “Good move. These morons won’t be looking for books.” These kids weren’t as dumb as Jim had originally thought. They displayed a level of street smarts.

  The question now was what action to take. If it were Jim, he’d barricade himself on one of the upper floors of the hotel. It would make a sneak attack virtually impossible and provide an excellent field of view over the town. With ten floors to search by himself and only a shotgun, a frontal attack would be foolish on his part. Best to stay put and gather intelligences. Big Jim would know the right opportunity to defeat these five losers when it came. He possessed the element of surprise, along with training and combat experience. When the time was right for him to attack, they wouldn’t know what hit them.

  Besides, the teenagers had escaped to the town’s library, so these clowns weren’t a threat to anyone. At least not yet. He hoped the status of not being a hazard would remain. Maybe the group would just move on in the morning?

  Jim kept vigil behind the open doors in front of the master bedroom’s balcony. After an hour, he could see lights on the sixth floor of the hotel. They may not have displayed any formal training, but they weren’t total fools. A figure would cross in front of the windows at irregular intervals. From this distance, Jim didn’t know if they were observing their surroundings or just wandering around inside the hotel’s rooms. He wished for a sniper rifle or even a decent set of binoculars. Unfortunately, Big Jim had neither and no prospects of picking either item up. If Jim hadn’t gotten sloppy, he would have visited the police station and equipped himself for the inevitable 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 TEN

  Day 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 arrived at the scene of the armed fracas.

  At least four bodies laid on the ground when Jim finally arrived. The pickup truck posse took cover on the same side Jim approached from. One of the new corpses that littered the street belonged to a member of their group, and he hoped to add four more shortly. Big Jim knew the element of surprise disappeared when the bullets started bouncing off the bucket. Their small arms wouldn’t be able to penetrate the heavy metal of the bucket, so Jim drove on.

  A bullet punctured th
e radiator of the backhoe, producing a stream of steam from in front of the hood. It only needed to stay running a few more minutes. A member of the pickup truck posse had taken cover behind a car and they now had threats on both sides of them. Before he could decide where to go, Jim used the bucket to cut the man in two. Another point for Big Jim. Three more points needed for victory.

  Another man hid behind the car, parked in front of the vehicle Jim just crashed into. Big Jim downshifted and used the torque from the machine’s screaming diesel engine to push the two cars together. The attacker’s soft body produced no resistance and popped like a balloon. Two more to go.

  Bullets continued to bounce harmlessly off of the backhoe’s bucket. The two remaining attackers hid across the street, so Jim had to back away from the crashed cars. Steam continued to pour from the radiator. He cut the wheels hard to the left to redirect the attack. When the two remaining men saw the backhoe coming at them, they renewed their attack on the advancing machine. A bullet struck the left front tire, and even Big Jim couldn’t pull the steering wheel back to center. While he tried another bullet struck the right front tire, stopping the backhoe in its tracks. This was the reason he had wanted a bulldozer instead of the backhoe. You can’t flatten metal tracks with bullets.

  Big Jim leapt off the far side of the backhoe and unloaded three shots at the closest combatant. He hadn’t had time to aim, only provide cover fire for himself as he sought safety. Sometimes you get lucky, and this time Jim did with a shot finding its mark and dropping the fourth gunmen.

  As quickly as it started, the gunfire stopped, and an eerie silence fell over the town. Jim didn’t know if they all ran out of ammo or if the last gunmen saw the futility of his situation. He knew the Mossberg only held three more shells. There was a box of shells in the cab, but they might as well be back at the house.

  Jim shouted, trying to take control of the situation. “Throw your gun down and I’ll let you go.”

  “Let me go. You assholes flattened my tires. If you hadn’t, we’d all be long gone by now. Now my buddies are all dead.”

  “You need to find better friends. This is my town now. You can stay and die or surrender your weapon and leave in peace.”

  After a few moments, the last gunmen responded. “Ok. I’m going to put my gun down and walk away. I hope you all rot in Hell for what you did here.”

  He placed the gun on the ground and stood up from his position under cover. Jim kept the Mossberg trained on the man. With a shake of his head, he turned away from the others and took a step away. Three shots rang out, and the man staggered and then fell onto his face.

  “What the hell, Corinne? He was giving up.”

  “Isaac, if you had the balls of our big savior, we wouldn’t have lost Adam and Dani in this godforsaken town.”

  Jim peered around the backhoe and saw the man and woman from the ATVs arguing with each other. Four bodies laid on the ground surrounding them. The teenage girl Jim met previously at the supermarket, sat in a heap rocking on her haunches, hugging herself with her arms.

  “Shit!”

  “Thank you, big man. I won’t shoot you. You can come back to our camp with us.”

  The woman’s voice, Corinne, had an ear-piercing whine to it. There was something about her Jim didn’t like already, but he had to check on the teenage girl. He retrieved the box of shells from the cab and kept the shotgun ready for action as he eased around the front of the backhoe.

  “My, you’re cute too.” She had a wanton look on her face that made Jim’s stomach churn.

  “Corinne, really.”

  “Shut up, Isaac. I’m a woman, in case you didn’t notice, and I have needs.”

  Jim ignored the two and walked over to the teenage girl. “Are you ok?”

  She looked up at Jim and blinked quickly. He noticed the tears streaming from the corners of her eyes.

  “It’s ok. My name is Jim. You’re safe now.”

  Her eyes darted between the bodies of her two companions. She still didn’t speak, but suddenly leaped to her feet and threw her arms around Big Jim. The hug touched Jim's emotions, but he could almost feel her grief. Then the annoying voice spoke again.

  “Jimmy. Leave her behind and come with us. We have a place in the mountains. I’d love to get to know you better.”

  “I think we need to talk about this Corinne.”

  “Shut up, Isaac. He just saved our lives. Your pansy ass can’t say that.”

  “Stop it, both of you.” Both of their heads snapped toward Jim at his harsh words. This wasn’t getting them anywhere.

  “Look, we’re both going with you. If your place is any good, we’ll stay. Otherwise you two are on your own. You’d better not be lying to me.”

  “Sorry. Don’t mind Corinne. We’ll take you back with us, but Max runs the camp. You or the girl staying will be up to him. Is that ok with you?”

  “Sure. Let’s get going.” Jim spoke to the girl. “Can you ride an ATV?” She shook her head. “Ok, you can ride with me. Hold on tight.”

  Without an invitation, Big Jim climbed onto the biggest of the four ATVs. The teenage girl climbed on behind him and held on with a death grip.

  “Uh… That’s my ATV.”

  “Not anymore.” Jim spoke with a smile on his face, but he meant the look to be a threat. Isaac backed down and took one of the other two ATVs since Corinne had claimed hers already.

  The path led them up the side of the mountain and over a pass to the other side. It was a narrow passage and would have been almost impossible to navigate with anything bigger than the ATVs. His passenger clung to him like her life depended on it. And it may have over some of the places they passed on this route.

  On the opposite side of the mountain, they came to a large clearing. Jim could see a small garage type structure hidden within the tree line, but no other structures. He might have turned around and left the two behind if he hadn’t noticed the dark reflective material on the ground. Wherever they were staying, it had to be underground. They headed toward the garage and Jim noticed the man as they parked. He was heavyset and older. The type of man who didn’t do physical work, at least not recently. He spoke as soon as they shut the engines off.

  “Where are Adam and Dani? Who are these two?”

  “We were attacked in the town. Adam and Dani didn’t make it.”

  “If Isaac had balls, then the big guy wouldn’t have had to save us. His name is Jim. The chick is deadweight.” Her whiny voice hurt Jim’s ears every time she spoke.

  “Oh, no. Both Adam and Dani are dead? Thank you, Jim, for stepping up and saving these two. Can I get you some food? My name is Max, by the way.”

  “Hi Max. I wouldn’t pass up something to eat. However, the girl comes with me.”

  “Of course, I wouldn’t dream of separating family.”

  She had no relation to Jim, but he wouldn’t correct Max if she didn’t. They followed him to a doorway at the end of the garage. It looked like a blast door with no visible handle on the outside. Max punched a code into a hidden keypad and the heavy door groaned as it swung open. A set of steps illuminated by dull light descended from the door into the mountain below.

  “A client of mine built this facility. It’s 5,000 square feet of living space underground with another 7,500 of garage storage space above. You came in through the smaller garage annex. There is hydroponic farming equipment, but none of us have figured out how to use it. Twelve, no sorry, ten of us are living here now. You’ve met Corinne and Isaac. My family and a few other friends round out the crew. What did you do before?”

  “I grew corn on a farm in Iowa. We didn’t use hydroponic equipment, but I’m sure I could help you figure it out. I had been in Washington DC when the zombies came to power, so I’ve had quite the run the last few days.” Jim held back a description of his other talents.

  “Wow, you covered a lot of ground. What’s DC like?”

  “It’s gone. They dropped a nuke on it. My guess would be to try
to stop the zombies.”

  “I wouldn’t have expected that, but it doesn’t surprise me. Well, let me get you something to eat. You and your friend can stay in suite G. Each suite has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a common seating area. Let me see about getting you both some clothes to wear. Then you both can take a shower and get some rest. We’re safe here.”

  They had walked down two flights of stairs and through 100 yards of hallway before coming to the large open common area. The common area had a kitchen, a dinning, and an entertainment area. All first class. It must have cost a fortune to build this place all underground into the side of a mountain. Max walked off to talk with a woman in the kitchen area. Jim took the opportunity to look around the common room, while the girl sat down at the table and rested her head in her hands.

  Max returned carry two plates heaping with food. A cheeseburger sat in the center while a fresh salad and baked beans rounded out the platter.

  “Please sit and eat. I’m sure you’re both hungry and dehydrated because of your ordeal out there. I’ll bring you both some water and iced tea. Have as much as you want.”

  “Thanks, Max.”

  Big Jim saw no reason to correct Max’s mistaken conclusion. If he wanted to see weakness, then that was ok with Jim. It would allow him to not appear as a threat while he determined their motives. Besides, Jim didn’t know how the teenager had fared on the outside.

  After they finished their meal, Max returned to speak with them.

  “Let me show you your suite. They aren’t huge, but they’re comfortable.”

  Suite G sat at the back right corner of the common area, across from the kitchen. The main seating area featured a love seat, a recliner, a small desk with chair, and a flat screen television. It felt like an upscale hotel room. Both bedrooms were the same. King-sized beds, a dresser, a smaller flatscreen television, and a door opening into a full bathroom.