The Clock Runs Down: Half Past the Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  People they had met on the street, or talked to in line at a store. How many of the kids like little Luis, they had taken on guided camping trips with their families, who had loved their time in the backcountry, were now dead. Jared refused to feel sick about it. There would be time later to mourn the world. But not now and not for a while.

  Suddenly Ori cocked his head to one side as if listening. “I hear a motor” He said in his soft voice way, his mountain accent stronger than usual.

  Steve moved to the window hoping that it would be Bridget. Down the road a red car appeared. The Prius wove wildly down the street dragging a zombie that for some reason would not let go of the door handle. “That’s Carols car” Steve shouted rushing to the front door. Carol was Bridget’s sister; Jared had only met her a few times over the years, but she had been nice enough. Jared grabbed Steve before he could throw open the door that was not the smartest of things to do in this situation.

  “Let me go damn it” Steve shouted trying to break free. Even as strong as he was Jared's Grip was stronger.

  “Hang on. Gotta make sure one of those things didn’t come around from the back and is ready to bite your ass off as soon as you open the door” Jared said pushing Steve against the wall, hard against the wall, despite their size difference Jared was as strong as Steve.

  “They just drove on to your grass,” Ori called out. “There's five more of the damn things coming from up the street” he added.

  “We go together,” Jared told Steve his voice hard. He sounded more like the Sergeant he had once been. “We do it the right way, okay” Steve nodded in control of himself once more. So simple to check Jared thought as he peered out the window at the top of the door and saw nothing on the porch.

  He looked at Steve, “ready?” Jared asked reaching for the door knob, “slow and steady. Got it” Steve nodded and tucked the butt of his M-4 to his shoulder. Jared opened the door. Steve went thru in a combat crouch weapon tracking left. Jared moved out and to the right side of the door covering Steve.

  Steve moved into the lawn as the Prius came to a stop almost in a flower bed. Bridget sat behind the wheel her face strained, in the passenger seat her three month pregnant sister was sobbing.

  “Contact.” Jared called out spotting a zombie coming around the Barn that had been converted into an attached garage, then his colt Commando fired twice. “Clear” He called out.

  The zombie hanging on to the door handle of the Prius had been a teenager and still wore the grocery store smock he had died in. It finally got itself righted and climbed unsteadily to its feet reaching for the Passenger side door handle again. A flap of skin hung down over one milky eye its mouth worked spastically.

  Steve whistled drawing its attention and waited till the zombie moved past the hood of the car clear of Bridget and Carol then shot it down. The corpse fell back across the hood before sliding to the ground. Steve raced forward, using his offhand he reached for the door handle and yanked the door open before turning to face the street where three more of the Infected, undead or whatever the hell you wanted to call them had joined the original five.

  Eight zombies, three women, two adult men and the three children stumbled towards him. He felt his bile rise at the sight of the kids. The children seemed to be slightly faster than the adult zombies. He still had plenty of time before they got close enough to be a danger. But just watching the staggering, twitching gaits the Blank cloudy eyes, and hearing the clicking and snapping teeth bothered him.

  “Mine,” Jared said as he moved past Steve noting Steve's hesitation but not commenting on it. Jared raised his weapon in one fluid movement and sighted. “Ori’s got the door, you get them inside” Jared called out Steve didn’t respond, he didn’t need to. He just turned and helped Carol out of the passenger side of the car while Bridget jumped out and dragged her backpack from inside. She shouldered the pack and then reached back into the car snagging another smaller pack. She paused only long enough to smile shakily at Steve then headed to the front door with her pregnant sister, where Ori stood covering all of them. Mark covering the back of the house from an upstairs window.

  Steve did flinch this time as he heard Jared's weapon bark out eight, then ten rounds. He knew how much shooting those kids would screw with Jared. Steve stopped at the front door waiting for Jared who trotted up a moment later then together they entered the house. Ori was the last inside, slamming the door and locking it.

  “Well, that was some fun shit” Jared said bitterly as he ejected the magazine from his weapon and replaced it with a fresh one. “The worlds really gone Tango Uniform when you have to shoot kids even if they are semi dead”

  Steven helped a sobbing Carol to sit on the couch then turned and almost smothered Bridget in a bear hug. “Hate to mention this, but we probably either need to fortify this place some or bug the hell out right now” Ori said as Jared nodded in agreement.

  “I have plywood, studs and all the wood I bought to build a deck, stored in the garage. Might as well cover the windows.” Jared said.

  The sun was setting by the time they finished boarding up the windows, Bridget and Sharon had fixed sandwiches and the entire group sat down to eat. “We can keep watch from the upstairs windows” Jared said after a moment of gazing at the now covered living room windows.

  “We could do a better job of making this place more defensible.” Steve said looking at the plywood over the bay window.

  “In a little bit, what we have is enough for the moment” Jared said.” It's not like we are going to be staying here for much longer anyway” Just then the sound of a heavy motor and gunshots could be heard down the road and coming closer. Ori dropped his sandwich and rushed upstairs. “That’s Jeff Sloan's truck!” Jared said, rising to his feet and unslinging his weapon. He recognized the sound of the old Dodge Truck Jeff drove.

  Jeff Sloan was his oldest friend, they had grown up together, they had been almost inseparable during high school.

  “We do this smart okay,” he said looking directly at Steve who nodded. “Mark you got door duty.” The three men clustered in the Foyer. Jared checked the porch and then opened the door. Steve slipped out, swinging left to cover that side of the house, Jared moved right. Mark looked nervous as hell, but assumed position on the door. Ori was in the upstairs window ready for a hail Mary if they needed it.

  Jeff's truck was moving slowly down the road its headlights cutting thru the gathering shadows a beacon for every walker within a mile. The reason he was going slow was readily apparent his father, called Pappy by everyone, was standing in the bed of the truck a shotgun ready in his old callused hands. Seven or eight zombies were trailing the truck looking even creepier than usual as the brake lights lit them up. Jared could see several more wandering thru the fields across the road following the noise.

  Jeff was heading towards his own house just down the road no doubt he had gone to pick up his dad who lived at the end of the country lane. The crusty old fart was in full form as he hurled insults at the zombies. He was without a doubt the most offensive old man you could meet. Jared usually took a perverse delight in getting the old guy riled so he would go off on long tirades. It was truly impressive the amount of creative swearing that old man could do when he built up a head of steam.

  He had grown worse after the death of his wife, Melissa Sloan had been two decades younger than her husband and the old man had doted on her so hard that he had, to the surprise of the town, tried to watch his mouth and even behaved in an almost socially acceptable manner for much of the time. Though not even Melissa’s presence could not stop him entirely especially when someone like Charlie Crist or Pastor Barton had punched Pappy’s buttons. No one had ever figured out what Melissa had seen in Pappy but there had been no doubt she loved the old guy.

  “Charley Crist, I see you back there. Hell, I would have thought you'd look better dead. But you don’t, you worthless piece of shit.” He yelled out then fired his shotgun, the zombie he hit staggered but kept c
oming. “ don’t worry you tards, I got lots of ammo.”

  “I be damned, Shirley. Even dead your looking good. The only good thing about you being a zombie is you are probably smarter now.” the old man fired twice more, missing once. The second shot hit, but only rocked the Elderly female zombie.

  “You, the ugly fat zombie girl. You damn sure could have scared the stink off shit when you were alive, and you ain't got no better looking since. I’d be embarrassed to die dressed like that. About as sexy as socks on a rooster. Did you get that face from acne scars or from trying to dodge a coat hanger for nine months?”

  Steve had to smother a laugh as the old man kept up a running monologue of insults directed at the zombies. The sad thing was, he had been only slightly less offensive to the living, Steve thought.

  “Steve take the zombies in front of the truck, I’ll take the rear.” Jared said.

  “Milly Jones, you pasty faced old bat, I never liked your damn cornbread. You couldn’t cook worth shit.” Pappy Sloan yelled out firing again, then whooped with delight as Milly took a lucky pellet in the head and pitched over, and didn’t get back up.

  Jared despite himself and the end of the world grinned as he listened to Pappy rant. Jared picked his first target, a woman with her face half eaten off dressed in a sexy come hither tight shirt, and short skirt. He fired once and she dropped out of his sights. The 5.56 rounds almost took her head completely off at this range. Shifting he took aim at Charley Crist, the old man had been Pappy’s nemesis for as long as Jared could remember and had been about as surly as Jeffs dad, the difference had been measured in degrees. The story of Halloween 1999 and the feud it had spawned between Pappy Sloan and Crist had become legend in these parts. He stroked the trigger, and Charley was no more.

  “Woooo hooo, you fart sniffer. He done blew your head off. You look a lot better now you asshole.” Pappy crowed from the truck bed. Jeff hearing the gunfire and seeing zombies drop ahead of his truck and behind, came to a stop. Pappy’s shot gun boomed three more times accompanied by laughter that ran down to hacking coughs.

  “Take that you flat chested, ugly as hell skank. Never liked your mama either” Pappy shouted doing a victory dance in the back of the truck as the “skank” dropped to the ground and lay still. Well Jared supposed that the old coot thought that shuffling, off balance weaving was dancing at any rate Jared tried and failed not to laugh at the whole thing. The end of the world was a theatre of the absurd, he thought.

  Pappy had a face like old leather and was skinny as a rail these days. His thinning hair was sticking up wildly in every direction giving the old man a crazed look. Like a mad gene wilder with a touch of Marty Feldman Jared thought. Well if either of those two had been foul mouthed crotchety old farts.

  You couldn’t say pappy was a shirker though, never had been either. Jared remembered a night in his childhood where Pappy had been willing to risk his own life for Jared’s. That was probably the only reason Jareds mom had gotten a little softer on the old man, not much but a little.

  Jared put down the last two zombies behind the truck and wheeled to the right as Mark’s Hk G36 fired from the porch. The zombie Mark had shot had come around the Barn turned garage and now lay neck stump down in the driveway.

  “Jeff what the hell you stopping for?” Pappy asked loudly. There was nothing old or frail about that voice. Jared jogged over and stopped by the Drivers door. “Thanks,” Jeff said rolling down the window the lights from the dash gave him a sickly look and god did he look tired Jared thought. Jeff hooked a thumb towards the bed of the truck. “He refused to ‘be trapped inside the Truck’ as he put it. He wanted to be able to make a quick escape. The fact he ain't much faster than one of those zombies seems to have escaped him.”

  “Jared Stone, you fornicating cuss you. Id have thought your wimpy ass would be running for the hills by now” Pappy said as he reloaded his shotgun. Jeff made a face. His dad was of the opinion, anyone born after 1955, were all dress wearing cowards like that Hoover fellow.

  “Don’t worry sir, I'm gonna run for the hills in a few hours. Just wanted to make sure you don’t need an extra box of depends.” Jared responded.

  “why you little prick, I aint pissed myself since Iwo jima. And that was only because the nips had me pinned down for two days. I was porking cheap hookers when your daddy was pissing his knickers in kindergarten ……” Jared tuned pappy out, wondering if the fact he was actually finding this funny at the end of the world meant he was losing it. The worry vanished from Jeff’s face for a moment as he started to smile.

  “Damn you Jared. You get him riled up every time. He will be cussing you, the liberals and the ungodly hippies for the rest of the night.” Jeff’s smile faded as swiftly as it had come. “He ain't gonna like it but we are heading out tonight. Got the Fifth wheel loaded with every bit of food we had in the house and what Vickie was able to buy before the stores were stripped bare. We are heading for Vickie’s cousins farm up around Gainsborough”

  “Good luck Jeff as soon as Ronny and Chris show up, we are going to head to the camp” Jared replied.

  “Good luck to you too. I wouldn’t wait long though. Last I heard those things were all over Nashville and a lot were heading up the interstate. Following the cars. As slow as they are a lot of them will end up here pretty quickly.”

  “Back roads buddy, that’s why god made back roads. we are leaving by tomorrow afternoon maybe earlier depends on how things go.” Jared told him.

  They shook hands and Jeff began to drive away, Pappy steadily cussing Jared. Jared waved goodbye “Pappy, if you can't find any more depends, they make rubber panties.” Jared called out a he slapped the side of the passing truck.

  Mark was laughing as Jared entered the house. Pappy’s cussing could still be heard even now but it was more like a distant aircraft droning by with sudden rises in volume. Once safely inside, Steve leaned against the wall in the hallway torn between laughing and feeling guilty for finding anything funny with the world coming apart around them.

  Jared smiled humor was the only thing that was going to keep them from losing it completely. This wouldn’t be like a deployment to a combat zone, where you only spent a certain time in the zone and knew if you didn’t get killed you would end up back home, safe and sound and far away from the nightmare. Not this time, this time there would be no escape. No R and R or downtime, at least not that he could see.

  “I have never heard half of the cuss words he was using there at the end” Mark said suddenly. “What the hell is a wanker?”

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  If it had been a normal night, they would have been lounging in the back yard around a campfire enjoying a few beers and chatting about nothing. But tonight, the cool night breeze brought the smell of smoke tinged with the reek of burning plastic, rubber and a thousand other products. Clouds moved in just after ten bringing a light rain that did nothing to remove the smell. Steve sat beside the window in the back bedroom, keeping watch on the back yard occasionally looking over at Bridget, who lay in a splash of moonlight, her sleep was fitful and full of nightmares judging by the way she tossed and turned. A terrified look on her face from whatever she faced in her dreams.

  Twice, through tears in the cloud cover, in the light of the almost full moon he saw small groups of people move slowly through the fields in the back. He could tell by the way they walked they were more zombies. They paid no attention to the silent dark house, they just shambled forward vanishing into the woods on the north side of the property as they headed towards the homes further up that had every light burning as if to dispel the darkness instead those lights only served to draw in the zombies like moths to a candle flame.

  What are we going to do? He asked himself. It had been all well and good, fun even to talk about end of the world situations and what they would do if this or that happened. But now, now, facing the fact that nothing would ever be the same again even if the government somehow got things under control. It wasn’t fun, th
ey were going to have to farm, hunt and fortify the camp or where ever they ended up because there would be people out there desperate or lazy enough to try and take what someone else had.

  He was half tempted to try and get Jared and the others to head to Fort Campbell, as Vets the military might let them in. They would need every trained gun they could get and All of them had been stationed on Campbell once years back.

  Jared might go for it, since his Brothers unit was stationed at Campbell, but He might not either. The infected would swarm to the base and there were miles and miles of fence line to patrol and maintain and if just one gap in that fence line went unnoticed it would allow thousands of infected inside and then it was all over. They also might not let anyone on base from the outside, vets or not.

  Really Jared’s camp was the best option, remote, isolated, good hunting and fishing around the place. Once they got a wall up across the front it would be easy to defend. Since three sides were sheer 80 to a 100 foot drops to the bottoms lands.