The Clock Runs Down: Half Past the Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  But once we are there, what then. Hide out for the rest of our lives. We need a doctor for carol, and one for ourselves because we are bound to get hurt or sick at some point.

  He mulled over all the way things could go wrong and how this situation could get worse and all it did for him was make him even more tense and more upset.

  Chris arrived around 2 am, Shelly was a blithering wreck. Her family had been attacked and she had watched helplessly as her father was dragged down and devoured. Her mother had pushed her into the basement, but in the process had been bitten on the leg. Shelly had listened to the screams for as long as they lasted. Shuddering with revulsion she had searched the basement for anything to use as a weapon then she had crouched in a corner with a hatchet listening to zombies claw slowly at the basement door. Chris had shown up twenty minutes later.

  Once Sharon had gotten Shelly upstairs to sleep Chris yawned and raked his fingers through his hair. After a moment he continued the story. “I got there and her dad was clawing at the Basement door. I put him down. Then the one on the ground came crawling at me. It was half gone, no legs, dragging its entrails, most of the flesh had been stripped off the torso so you could see the rib cage and some of the organs, the skin had been peeled off the skull. I killed it, and then saw the wedding ring. It was, had been her mom. Ain't no way I could tell her any of that shit,” He said with a shudder. Jared only gazed at the wall thinking about that. Who the hell would ever want to see their parents like that. “I dumped both bodies out the back door so she wouldn’t see them, no way in hell she needed to see that crap”

  Chris looked older already, His brown hair seemed almost faded and there was a little silver in there that Jared had never noticed before, the muscles in his jaw twitched and jumped now. It was the hopelessness in his hazel eyes that bothered Jared the most. We will all end up with gray hair and twitches if we survive this Jared told himself. “But what really bothers me, I haven’t seen a cop since noon or so and there is no National Guard or Reserve out there. Man that’s scary as all hell to me.”

  It was scary, Jared thought. It meant it was so bad no one was responding to the call up. Or it had gone south, so fast there hadn’t been time for a call up. Hell Nashville was well on the way down and if there was going to be National Guard deployed in this state it would be in the state capitol.

  I bet the Governor and the rest thought they had time to figure out what was going on and got caught flat footed when the wheels came off today. We all were.

  He wasn’t so surprised about the cops; those guys would have been some of the first to be bitten, after responding to the initial calls and the paramedics would have gone down damn fast too. Those that survived the first hours would have rushed home to save their own families once they knew it was hopeless and he didn’t blame them at all. That was the basis for his fear. Without an organized force out dealing with this. The undead would just roll over everything and it would be hopeless if the first responders were gone.

  “Cline stopped by my place to warn me this warning” Ori piped up. Cline was a friend of Ori’s and a Deputy Sheriff. Jared and the others had met him at various points over the years. “he said a few of them were going to bug out. Said a bunch of them had been killed and there weren’t enough of them left to do anything other than to die. Had his patrol car packed with gear.”

  there you go, Jared thought, and I don’t blame the man. Others would he thought, But I can’t.

  Once they got the exhausted Chris to sleep on a cot they sat looking at each other in silence. The humor and slight uplift from encountering pappy was gone now. “We can't stay, you know that right” Ori said, pressing a hand over his mouth to stifle a yawn.

  “Never planned on staying here long term,” Jared replied.

  “I meant we can't stay for a week or even a couple of days, Sarge” Ori said, referring to the bug out plan they had come up with years before in case of some unlikely disaster occurred and society crashed down. “Man, we have maybe two days before there are so many dead wandering around out there that we end up trapped here” Ori said, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose with a thumb and forefinger. It had been a long emotional day and he was exhausted, they all were. Steve nodded in agreement with Ori, which pretty much settled things.

  “A guy that Sharon worked with did the math for her last night, if he is right there could be a fifteen thousand infected in and around Nashville. Damn near Fifty thousand in New york city.” Mark said, he had dark circles around his eyes. “tomorrow twice or three times that number.”

  “Hell, I hope he is wrong” Jared muttered if the man was right civilization would be gone in a week maybe a week and a half. He shrugged it didn’t matter, there were enough of those things out there right now and their numbers were growing Civilization was pretty much done for regardless. “I think I mentioned not wanting to stay more than a day or two more. And stop calling me Sarge I’m not in the Army anymore” Jared said, thinking that even another day might be too long as well. “Look, if Ronny isn’t here by noon tomorrow we go to his place and look. Whether we find him or not we leave for the camp no later than the next morning. If he isn’t here by then or there are just too many of these things showing up then he knows where to go, so we leave a note and head out” Jared said. Ori and the others nodded in agreement and the matter was closed.

  Jared, picked up the remote and turned on the Tv, his eyes widened as he the EBS alert warning, he changed to another channel, then another the alert was on every channel he checked. All 320 TV stations, available from across the country were off the Air. Without a word he turned off the TV and they all looked at each other. Jared knew the clock had finally run down.

  CHAPTER 5

  'Tis now the very witching time of night,

  When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out

  Contagion to this world”

  ~William Shakespeare

  Mary shifted uneasily in the seat almost too afraid to look out the window of the truck and into the darkness. She had already seen more than enough zombies walking around today to last a lifetime, and that, she thought was not counting her twice weekly trips to Walmart. The media was falling all over itself trying not to use the word zombie, or the two words “walking Dead”, but that was exactly what those things were, dead men walking.

  Her day had started as normal as any other day. She had woken up, showered, drank some coffee and then headed into work. The news of the last few days had bothered her but she had so far seen no sign of rampaging druggies, infected or crazies as various news networks called them.

  The few folks she saw stumbling along the side of the road just before dawn as she headed to work she had chalked up to drunks or hitchhikers. If she had known what they were at the time she would have ran their asses right over then backed up to make sure they were dead before driving on..

  It wasn’t till Carmichael her boss had come in and announced that there was an emergency and that the Mayor at the urging of the CDC had ordered everyone to their homes, that she even realized something was up. Carmichael had explained quickly about the infected and then went to gather his things, so he could leave. Ronny had called two minutes after that, telling her he would be there as soon as possible to pick her up. He had been watching the news and heard the order to close all business’s and send the employee’s home. “Don’t take off in the car baby, you know its barely running. Just wait okay” he had said and he was right. Her car ran about as often as a 90 year old ran marathons.

  In a rare moment of human Kindness, Carmichael had actually left her the keys to the building to lock up after he left instead of forcing her to wait outside. And it was probably his last moment of kindness she decided. She actually hoped the sour faced bastard was all right, she would have died if not for his leaving her the keys.

  Ronny had been delayed by heavy traffic and was over an hour late by the time she remembered the emergency pack he had insisted she keep with her and
of course she had left it in the car.

  Other than the recent flooding she had never had any reason to use that pack and had considered Ronny’s and his friends' obsession with preparing for disaster as a hobby more than there being a real need for it. Till now of course and now that she needed the pack it was still locked in her car where it did her zero good.

  She had paced around her office, occasionally tucking an escaping strand of dark hair back in place. Occasionally she heard gun shots off in the distance and even more disturbing were the screams of sheer terror.

  Mostly it had been quiet outside her office and that was disturbing. She worked downtown, and it had always been noisy. Of course, you didn’t notice the noise. It was just like whitenoise something never really heard but when it was gone the silence was jarring. Now there was no sound of car’s driving down the road, no horns honking and no music from the nearby street festival.

  With each turn around her office the tension she felt grew. After twenty minutes of pacing she had thrown up her hands. “Oh for the love of God” she muttered angry at herself. “you haven’t seen any one, infected or otherwise so just go get the pack.” Not to mention that I won’t have to hear Ronny say I told you so for the next month if it’s still in the car when he gets here. The down side I won’t get to spank him for being a smart ass. A grin, that looked more like a grimace flashed across her face. Truthfully, she had been to nervous to feel any real humor.

  Taking the office keys as well as her own she quietly headed downstairs. Before entering the lobby she peered around the corner to make sure the tastefully decorated lobby was clear before heading to the doors to unlock them.

  Stepping outside She had nervously looked around at the empty street. There wasn’t a car in sight or even a single person it was the most surreal moment of her adult life and it had only helped drive home the disaster that seemed to be rolling over Nashville and the world.

  She had thought she had been prepared for the moment but she hadn’t been. The emptiness slammed into her almost physically. In the distance she could see black plumes of smoke rising from multiple locations. She had even see flames rising out of the broken windows on the upper floors of the Bat tower as locals called it, due to the odd looking projections that rose up on either side of the roof. It was like a scene from a movie, but no movie could ever do justice to how eerie it was to see this in person and know that there were crazy people roaming the streets.

  She had taken off her high heels and tucked them into her purse then jogged across to the neighboring parking garage. She had always considered herself strong, independent and she was, in the world of yesterday. But today in the new world as she stood there looking into the dark entryway of the multistory Garage she hesitated wondering what if anything might be inside and hated the flicker of fear she felt staring into the dim almost dark garage. She had hesitated for only a moment then manned up as Ronny would have said and stepped into the garage.

  .

  The only light inside was the weak sunlight that filtered through the openings in the buildings side and that only reached a short way inside leaving thousands of shadows that could have hidden anything covering the rest of the parking garage and the ramps. She didn’t know it at the time, but those shadows had hidden a few things, things that slowly turned and began to stagger and stumble after the living woman who started up the ramp to the upper floors.

  Whoever had designed and built the thing had added as few lights as possible except by the elevator and stairwell lobbys and of course in the stairwells themselves. Normally it hadn’t bothered her, but that was before the world had turned upside down and she had walked into a dark garage where those same few lights were out.

  Without her shoes there was no echo or steady clicking of her heels as she walked. She had realized later she had been very lucky when she had decided to take off her high heels. Very lucky!

  Reaching the third floor she pushed the button on the Car remote that she thought was the trunk release. The sudden double honk surprised her and made her jump. It was so damn loud in the near total silence. Next time look at the damn thing she had thought nervously looking around for threats.

  Total silence, now there’s a description that means nothing till you experience it, she thought as she looked out the truck window. It's profound and creepy, when all the sounds that normally go unnoticed are no longer there, the sound of traffic, the barely heard muted conversations all around, Distant horns, and a thousand and one other things. Now all she could hear was the hum of the power lines outside. I wonder why the lights were out in the garage though, she asked herself her mind already dragging up the memory of what happened next.

  She had popped the trunk and pulled out the pack setting it on the floor, on impulse, she opened the pack and pulled out the pistol that Ronny had insisted be part of the emergency kit. She was really spooked to even consider carrying that in public, not because she hated weapons, but she had no license and didn’t want to get in trouble for using it.

  If she was threatened and needed to use the pistol she wouldn’t hesitate to put down any attacker and face a jury later. Sealing the pack, she had slung it over her shoulder and turned to head back down the ramp hoping that Ronny would be waiting at the curb by the time she reached the street.

  Mary turned her head to look at Ronny forcing herself to relax and settle back into the seat of the truck as the memory of what had followed rose up and carried her back like she was living it again.

  She stopped abruptly the hair rising on the back of her neck, standing on the car ramp, she had just come up, was a man who stood in the shadows. Instinct not rational thought made her crouch down out of sight. There was something about that figure that set her on edge.

  His shoulders seemed hunched over, seemingly longer than normal arms dangled at his sides. He wore an old fashioned hat, like a bowler. His head turned from side to side, enough for her see a large hooked nose that seemed overly long. The impression that it was listening, and sniffing was almost overpowering.

  Her first thought was to brave it out and call out a hello. However, a part of her, the more primitive part, overrode that desire as she slipped as silently as she could between her car and the van parked next to it. She was suddenly very thankful for the work she had put into staying fit and slim and thankful she wasn’t tall either.

  She crouched there peering over the back of the car watching as the strange man moved slowly up to the top of the ramp and stopped still in the shadows beside a thick cement pillar.

  Behind him, she saw several other people come up the ramp, one was dragging its left leg, its right arm dangling by its side. Another used short, mincing steps, its toes pointed inward it leaned forward as if using gravity to actually move. The others moved with their own peculiar traits imposed by the injuries they had sustained.

  Bowler hat’s head turned slowly, mechanically and then stopped as he spotted her car. She had the distinct impression it was looking straight at her. Her mind raced as she considered her options, she knew she could run across the lane and leap the railing to get to the second floor of the garage. But she had no idea how many more infected people were down there. The entire lower two floors of the garage could be crawling with the infected now, she thought ignoring the mental image of pale, blood covered people scuttling along the ceilings and floors, sniffing as they followed her scent.

  Think, she told herself, pull your head out of your butt and think. She couldn’t go to her left because of the infected, she could make a run for the railing and try her luck on the second floor, seeing the other infected that were coming up the ramp behind Bowler hat that didn’t seem like an option. But thirty feet away and to her right were the stairs and elevators. At least the elevator lobby was lit, she had thought. She didn’t want to even risk getting stuck in the elevator if the power went out so that only left the stairs, which were a whole heck of a lot less risky than any other option she had.

  She lowered her head an
d moved to the front of her car then squeezed between the front of a van and the outside wall, which only came up to waist height. Thank god for the posts that kept people from hitting the outside wall, that gave her about a foot of space to squeeze through.

  She wished she could just leap out and land easily on the ground three floors below. That would make things so much easier. Wish in one hand spit in the other and see which one fills up first she told herself as she moved past the front of the van to the Lexus parked beside it. She didn’t stop but moved past the car the same way she had passed the van staying against the outside wall. Her eyes kept darting back the other way, unable to see the infected she was scared they were coming after her.

  She had lain down between the Lexus and a compact ford parked on the other side and had looked under the vehicles and saw that Bowler hat and his buddies were beside her car now. Crap crap crap she thought. She was twenty, maybe fifteen feet from the staircase now. She climbed slowly to her feet staying low and out of sight as she slipped along the wall again and the front of the ford compact. Her mind now fixated on the stairwell door. It was close, she thought then the sudden idea that more of the infected might be inside stairwell crashed over her.