The Clock Runs Down: Half Past the Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  She was pretty he realized as he got a good look at her. Her long dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and the thick black motorcycle leathers clung to every athletic curve. She reached back into the wrecked car and pulled out a leather belt with two holstered pistols attached to it and buckled it around her slender waist. An end of the world survivalist dominatrix he thought his eyes centering on the swell of the chest under the tight leather. If she looked that big with it on, he thought then tore his eyes away. Guiltily aware that Mary was sitting in the truck watching, and she was armed.

  “Thanks,” she said to Ronny, who nodded. She looked like she had been crying he noted. Hell I’ve almost cried several times in the last twenty four hours, big woop.

  “Your welcome” Ronny said then turned and shot down the four zombies in Jeffs yard.

  “It's really a screwed up world,” she said as she wrestled a duffle bag and backpack out of the Charger and placed them on the hood.

  “You from around here?” she asked glancing at Ronny then looked around to see if any of the dead were close enough to be a threat. At least she seems to be holding herself together which was far more than most people were doing lately.

  “No, but a friend of mine lives just down the road there” he said pointing towards Jared’s distant house.

  “Really,” she said, arching a delicate eyebrow “I'm looking for a friend of mine that lives down that road, ever met Jared Stone”

  “Aint it a small world” Mary said stepping from the truck her voice dust dry as she turned a glare on Ronny who was almost drooling. “And if my fiancé doesn’t close his mouth, I'm going to nail it shut with a nail gun” she at least sounded like her normal self, Ronny thought tearing his eyes away from the stranger.

  Jared and Ori had been ready to go looking for Ronny when Ronny's jacked up Ford rolled down the road and pulled into the driveway. Ronny deftly parked across the last gap in the box the vehicles formed around the garage door. Jared and the others had worked fast to move and park the vehicles this morning to make their exit faster and safer.

  Jared did a double take as he saw a third person in the truck and his eyes widened as Jill emerged after Mary. He raised an eyebrow at the Katana she held, but felt some relief to see she had two pistols riding her hips. His next thought was how damn sexy she looked in that leather bikers outfit.

  “We were just about to go looking for you,” Ori said as he wrapped an arm around Ronny’s shoulder and squeezed.

  “Suck up” Steve muttered as the rest of the group laughed more out of relief at seeing one more friend than humor.

  “Got stuck in the woods for a bit last night. You wouldn’t have made it far on the roads. Seemed like there were wrecks blocking every damn intersection between here and the Mall, and there are fires everywhere. And wouldn’t you know it not a cop or a paramedic in sight” Ronny said as Steve and Ori helped him unload the Packs and Jills duffel from the back of his truck.

  “And then we find Milla there kicking zombie ass with kicks and a sword down in front of Jeffs place” Ronny said grinning. “You should have seen it Jared.”

  Jared looked around and spotted walkers in the field across the road. “Let's get back inside, leave the rest of the stuff on the truck. That’s why we boxed in the garage, so we could reach the trucks without having to run across the yard.” Jared said as he took Jill by the shoulders, She looked like she hadn’t slept and there was a haunted look in her red swollen eyes. “ Good to see you,” he said.

  She didn’t reply at first she just wrapped her arms around Jared and leaned her head against his chest for a long minute before pulling away.

  He wasn’t about to mistake the intimacy of the embrace for anything other than what it was, a need for comfort but he had enjoyed it all the same. Parts of him, really enjoyed the touch.

  “You okay?” He asked after a moment. She nodded then took a deep breath.

  “My… My sister got bit coming over to my place. I had to kill her,” she said, and choked back a sob that tried to force its way out, she was determined not to cry not when thousands maybe millions were dead around the world. Well, semi dead at any rate. Her sister was just one of the multitudes of the dead now.

  “Sorry to hear that,” he said and meant it. The pain in her voice and her eyes wrenched at him. “I couldn’t stay there not with her body there and I didn’t have anywhere else to go, and you…”

  “I know” He said gently. “And I meant it when I invited you over.” Jared assured her.

  “Hate to break in, but there’s a few of the dead guys down the road and looking this way” Chris announced. “ And five, a hundred yards out in the field across the street”

  “Man the neighborhood is really going to hell, you should consider selling” Ori commented as they gathered gear and went back inside.

  “Naw, Id never get my asking price” Jared replied as they all headed inside.

  Mary and Bridget watched Jared hover over Jill. They were slightly amused, despite the situation outside the house. He must really like her to be waiting on her hand and foot. It was almost disgusting to watch. But he was decent enough not to flirt while she was still dealing with the end of the world and having to kill her own sister.

  She had shared her experiences with the entire group once she had gotten settled in. From what she had seen it was even worse in the City than they had assumed.

  Bridget had never met Jill before but she could see why Jared was so interested it wasn’t just her looks. She had a presence that was hard to define and incredible self control and confidence. Bridget absently touched her own wavy brown hair feeling a stir of jealousy.

  They were about the same height and the same build. Well not quite, Jill was if anything far more fit than any other woman in the house. Bridget glanced at Steve and smiled, I hope that she falls as hard for Jared as he seems to have fallen for her they do make a good looking couple. Assuming that He doesn’t go overboard and drive her off. Its just the stress and having her here in his house. Overcompensation as the shrinks would say.

  “You distract him, and I'll get her to follow me to the bathroom” Mary whispered to Bridget who nodded in agreement. “have a little girl to girl talk.”

  The fact that Mary even knew how to have a girl to girl chat was almost as surprising as the undead outside. Bridget smothered a laugh at the idea, Mary was probably the most direct woman she had ever met. She talked more like a guy than any woman Bridget had ever been around.

  “Might as well save the situation before he gets too carried away” Bridget said, nodding again as she rose heading straight for the kitchen door to intercept Jared before he could return with yet another cup of coffee or god forbid a brownie.

  The world was ending all right when Jared Stone was busy playing house wife with zombies roaming around. Can it get any stranger Bridget thought, stepping into the kitchen. “Step away from the damn cupcakes and you won't get hurt,” she said seeing what he was doing. The door to the kitchen swung shut behind her, cutting off the wild laughter of the men in the other room.

  “Looks like maybe thirty out there” Ori said coming down the stairs. “And Rob swears he saw more in the woods on the other side of the pasture and more are coming from across the fields.”

  “Do we wait for Damon and Keith?” Jared asked looking around at the others.

  “I talked to Damon yesterday morning, He and his wife were heading to Georgia, his wife has family around Stone Mountain.” Steve said.

  “Any one get hold of Keith before the phones went south?” Jared asked

  The others shook their heads all they could do was hope. Keith lived on the south side of Nashville and there was no way in hell they could get there without driving through the worst of the disaster.

  “Trust me, it would be hard as hell for either one of them to get here after what I saw Yesterday.” Ronny said glumly he and Keith were almost two peas in a pod. Though Keith had never been as big a horn dog as Ronny.
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br />   “So do we stay the night and give them a chance, or leave now?” Steve asked.

  “I vote now, if we wait till morning there could be five or six hundred out there, or more” Ori replied. Mark nodded in agreement. “And if we leave now we still have hours of daylight left so we can stop and get the rest of the ammo and the rest of the equipment before bugging out completely.” Mark added

  “Good point, but what about when night falls. We need time to find a place to stay for the night. And I don’t think the roads will be clear enough for us to make it to the Camp in the normal two and half hours.

  Rob looked down at the floor, he and his boyfriend had only worked for Jared and the crew for two seasons so far and was hesitant to share his ideas.

  “You got a suggestion, Rob?” Jared asked suddenly, they had worked together long enough for Jared to recognize when Rob wanted to say something but was holding back.

  Rob grimaced at being put on the spot then cleared his throat. “There is a place I know about. Used to explore it as a kid. It's an old sand pit with a lot of buildings. Been abandoned since the fifties I think. If we leave by noon and don’t get too delayed, we can reach it well before nightfall. It's got four or five huge old buildings, and several smaller ones too. With a lot of old earth moving equipment just sitting around rusting.

  Even better, whoever owns it has bulldozed up a wall of dirt around it to keep out off roaders. The only way in is through a chain link fence gate.” He said then shrugging slightly embarrassed to be the center of attention. “It's a mile off a country road, three houses are on the road leading to it, and the chain link gate is closed with a chain and padlock. So bolt cutters will get us thru it.”

  “Get him a map” Jared told Ori then leaned against the wall considering their options as Ori passed a road map to Rob who marked the location and passed it back to Ori. The entire group spent half an hour working out the details before Jared said “sounds like a plan then,” Looking around inviting questions or comments but there were none.

  “All right everything is already loaded up, so lets sweep the house once more for anything we might have missed I’ll leave a note and a map so if Allen, Damon or Kyle show up they know we are alive and where we are headed and then its packs on and haul ass out of there. No sense hanging around till noon, when we can leave now.” Jared commented as he rose and slung his rifle on his shoulder.

  Under the harsh glare of fluorescent lights in the barn the group loaded the last of the supplies onto the trailer hooked to Jared's truck Jared waited with the remote in his hand, his Colt Commando slung across his chest and his pistol riding his thigh, while the group got itself sorted out.

  He couldn’t help but remember all the party’s they’d had while they worked on their off road trucks in the large old barn. He was going to miss this place, and he doubted he would ever get to come back here and live.

  He glanced at the long work bench, his eyes lingering on the tools still hanging on the pegboards, and his rolling tool boxes. He hated to leave all that stuff behind, but each truck had its own tools and spare parts loaded already, they never drove without them. Nothing worse than breaking a belt or snapping a tie rod in the middle of nowhere and not having the parts and tools to fix it. He didn’t know any serious Offroaders who didn’t carry parts and tools for emergencies.

  He racked his mind for a moment to see if they had left anything that they might need, finally satisfied, he turned back to the group trying to ignore the looks of fear and apprehension. It was hard to forget this was the end of their old lives and who knew what waited down the road.

  “Everyone ready?” He asked looking at each person and waiting till they gave the all clear. Not sure what he would do if someone balked at leaving. “Then let's go,” he said as he pressed the button and the garage door began to open. He was thankful he had installed a battery back up for the garage door opener several years back. Immediately the foulest stench any of them had ever smelled filled the garage.

  If there was one thing you could say about zombies, it would be they stunk. As a group it was overwhelming. Individually, it was bad. At the sound of the doors opening, the zombies milling about the yard and clawing at the windows and doors of the house turned towards the vehicles that formed a U shape around the front of the garage blocking their way.

  Jared felt a shiver as he saw that there were at least fifty zombies now, Ori was probably right, there could be a thousand by tomorrow morning. But what unnerved him the most was the silence oh a few moaned occasionally but they were mostly silent. Hopefully the loads of gear in the back of the trucks were secure. Because there was no way any of them could just run around the side of the truck and tighten things up a bit.

  Steve loaded first helping Carol and Bridget into his truck. All of them trying to ignore the hands clawing at the passenger side window as the undead sought to break thru. His truck started with a roar. Thank god if any vehicle didn’t start they were screwed. Jared thought, eyeing Ronny’s truck, which was notorious for not starting. Oh it ran like a champ but it was quirky about starting sometimes. They had never been able to pin down the reason for it either. Mary was of the firm opinion the truck occasionally reminded Ronny he wasn’t really in charge of it.

  One by one they ran to their trucks and got them started. Jared breathed a sigh of relief as Ronny’s truck roared to life. That’s one less problem at the moment he thought.

  As the trucks fired up the undead went nuts gnawing at the glass trying to reach the people inside. The dead cloudy eyes of the zombies darting from side to side as they sought a way to get to the fresh living meat on the other side of the glass.

  Jared climbed into his truck buckled up and started the motor. “All right lets roll,” he said over the radio. Ronny pulled out purposely running down every zombie he could get in front of his truck. Mark pulled in behind him. Both trucks already locked into four-wheel drive.

  Jared pulled forward slowly so as not to yank the trailer then accelerated smoothly pushing the button to close the garage door. He watched the garage entrance in the side mirror till it shut completely. Not one zombie had gotten in. They were too busy following the trucks. Good at least if I get to come back I know the garage is safe to enter he thought.

  Pulling the heavily loaded trailer across the lawn had worried him at first. But his truck, dug down and pulled it thru the lawn easily leaving deep ruts in the grass. “The lawn guy is going to hate me” Jared said aloud.

  Undead were slapping weakly at the glass as he passed. It only lasted for a moment then he was pulling onto the road and turning towards the highway. Behind him the rest of the team fell into place. They left a trail of crushed and mangled bodies behind them. The surviving zombies began their slow pursuit after their fleeing prey.

  .

  CHAPTER 7

  " For all we have and are,

  For all our children's fate,

  Stand up and take the war.

  The Hun is at the gate!

  Our world has passed away,

  In wantonness o'erthrown.

  There is nothing left to-day

  But steel and fire and stone!”

  -Kipling

  “are you F’ing nuts” Steve’s voice sounded tinny over the cb speaker. “your not playing hero to save the rest of us Jared. There is no telling how many of them might be there.” Outlining my plan to the others was turning out to not be a smart move, Jared thought. He ignored the frown on Jills face as he lifted the microphone to his lips “Steve, listen”

  “No, you listen, at the very least I am going to hit the ground with you. Get that through your head right now Jared because one way or another at least one of us is going in with you.” Steve said almost bellowing.

  “He’s right” Jill said quietly. “I know their slow and seem stupid but it’s a risk that’s just not worth taking.”

  “et tu?” Jared asked with a sigh as he glared at the CB then lifted the mic to his lips again. “You win!. We p
ull over in two minutes. You and I will be riding with Ori up to the gate. Bridget can pick you up once we are inside, then Ori and I will clear the office while you clear the lot. ”

  “Better” Steve replied there was no way to miss the satisfaction that almost dripped from that one word. There are times friends, especially best friends can be a real pain in the butt Jared thought.

  “Who’s going to drive your truck?” Jill asked suddenly.

  “You” Jared replied.

  “Jared I’ve never driven a big truck like this and definitely not one with a heavily loaded trailer behind it.” Jill protested.

  “Its no different than driving a car.” Jared said, which was kind of the truth. “and you won’t be going fast and you won’t have to back up.”