The Clock Runs Down: Half Past the Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  “We came here because we picked up some radio broadcasts that mentioned this town. But I’d really like to talk some place a bit safer.” Logan said as he tilted his head towards a zombie that had slid down the wet embankment and was climbing to its feet on the rain slicked road behind the overpass.

  “Just a moment if you don’t mind.” Jared said.

  Logan blinked at the gunshot, god that man was fast. His right hand had gone from the butt of his rifle to draw his pistol holstered on his thigh and shoot down the zombie all in one smooth movement that was so fast Logan didn’t even see Jared move till he holstered the pistol.

  “If you’re looking for a safe place to talk, I can take you to one. You can stay there for as long as you like. Its up to you, trust us or not” Jared said. “But got to tell you I'm not standing out here any longer.” He said nodding his head towards a group of zombies that were slipping and sliding down the embankment now.

  “We will follow you.” Logan replied and almost leaped back into his Jeep eager to get away from the undead.

  .

  “sorry folks there is going to be a slight delay before we head to the cabins.” Jared said to Kelly and his family as soon as he was seated in the van again. he felt a surge of excitement at seeing new faces, it felt damn good to know that there were still people out there. He turned around and headed back towards the National forest.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Jill was silent as they drove down the winding somewhat tree shrouded road, lighting flickered crazily across the sky. Occasionally she could see barns deep in pastures situated on rolling hills. As often, as she had been down this road, tonight in the storm it looked entirely different. What spooked her, at one point lighting flashed and she saw a group of zombies plodding along across a field, wet hair and clothes plastered to their bodies. They just moved through the storm without seeming to notice.

  Before they reached the turn off to the camp, Jared turned onto a paved road that led into the National forest. After two miles it became gravel.

  Jared had to stop once and cut the lock off a bar gate then opened it so they could drive through. Beyond the gate the road dropped slowly into the bottoms, where heavily wooded slopes rose to either side, they drove through a creek, the water rising slowly in the storm.

  Jill squinted trying to see through the gloom and rain, but all she could make out were shadows that seemed to move in the light making it easy to imagine a thousand zombies to either side hidden by the weather just waiting to descend on them when they stopped.

  The road finally began to rise cutting along the flank of a rocky slope till it curved into an open area surrounded by forest where Jill saw a fence to the right. Just past the fence Jared turned and entered a gravel parking area. There wasn’t enough room for all the vehicles to park on the Gravel so Jared got out and directed them to park under the Swaying willows

  In the light of headlights and the flickering flashes of lighting, Jill saw a series of log buildings two were built on a deck situated on a slope. The rest sat on the overgrown lawn or maybe meadow she wasn’t sure. Leaving Ori and Jason to watch the their vehicles Jared led the group across the grounds amongst the willows and old oak into the first and largest log building, like all the other buildings it appeared to be straight out of the 1800’s.

  They entered the main room, flashlight beams stabbing out pushing aside the darkness as men and women fanned out clearing the main room then the rest of the building.

  With the building cleared they gathered in the main room once more. “there's a bunch of Oil lanterns over there” Jared said pointing with his flash light at a shelf. One of the strangers, began to take lanterns down and light them. In a moment the room was bathed in the soft welcome glow of oil lanterns and flashlights were turned off.

  It was a large room, with a large stone fireplace built into the chinked log wall on the north side with a door on either side of the fire place. two long rows of tables covered with gingham cloth took up most of the space in the main room. The benches were made of split logs with thin cushions placed on them.

  A counter and old fashioned looking cabinets ran along the east wall under the shuttered windows.

  .

  “what is this place?” Jill asked, as she watched the group of twenty something’s talk excitedly amongst themselves. All but one, a tall, tanned and leggy blonde, whose large breasts probably cost five grand a piece. Jill knew that was being catty but there was something about that girl that just set off her bitch sense.

  The younger woman looked around with distaste, standing by a wall with her arms crossed below her chest, a deliberate move meant to emphasis her charms. Just like the way the girl would lean back or to the side. She was primping, looking to get laid. And her apparent Target for conquest was Jared judging by the looks she kept giving him. No doubt thinking if he was tough and in charge she would be well kept if she bedded him.

  Jill didn’t let her dislike show, or do anything so catty as showing her possession of Jared. Kelly and his family, looked out of place, but at the same time being out of that damn store and around people again had them excited now that they were starting to really believe that Jared meant to help them.

  “ it is, or was a hostel.” Jared said. “part of the National forest. Hikers and horseback riders would stay here.” Jared replied answering her question “used to you couldn’t drive down here it was off limits. You had to park up by the bar gate and hike or ride your horse down.” Jared explained, “ I’m guessing who ever might have been here when the end came left for home.” He said with a shrug.

  “you were not you worried about there being any undead here” Jill asked.

  “Not really, there never was a lot of people who stayed here, the most I ever saw was a group of twenty and its far enough out from anywhere that I didn’t expect a horde to have gathered here.” Jared said. “Now lets get the introductions out of the way.”

  It didn’t take long for the introductions to be made, Steve was by far the largest man in the room. But Logan and Chad were still pretty solid looking. Chloe was a woman in her mid twenties, pretty with Dark brown hair and piercing eyes, Kevin might have been five ten or so but it was hard to tell since he was wheel chair bound. His dark hair was shaved close to the scalp on the sides while the top was long and slicked back like a ill kept flat top.

  Now Logan, Jill thought he was young and had classical good looks and the dark Italian or Greek Complexion that so many women loved and if she hadn’t met and fallen for Jared and the world hadn’t died she would have at least hinted at an interest in going to dinner with the younger man.

  She sat beside Jared, listening as he told them about the escape from Nashville and some of what had happened to them since they had arrived here.

  “So, this isn’t where you stay?” Logan asked then gave a shake of his head. “Never mind, I guess I don’t blame you for not wanting us to see where ever it is you do stay.”

  “Trust is a hard thing to come by these days” Jared replied. “but lets see what we can work out. A good start would be Why are you folks here? this area is pretty far off the beaten track.”

  “that’s the truth,” Logan said then shrugged. “we came out of Knoxville. Most all of us are… were students at UT. For a while we just moved around close to the smokies staying away from every big town, scavenging everything we could find, Gary,” he said motioning towards the skinny, sandy haired Uber nerd who sat on the Hearth. “Commandeered a National Guard Com vehicle at an old checkpoint and started listening for transmissions. “

  We kind of hoped we might hear about some place that government had set up as a shelter. Hell we hoped we would hear anything to tell us we weren’t alone. then about a month ago, Gary heard something, it sounded military, but it faded in and out. We kept listening and that’s how we heard about this place.”

  She listened as Logan explained about the Radio broadcasts, that had brought them to this area hoping to find more people. Then
explained all that had happened on their way here, and it hadn’t been pleasant. From what he said there had been five other guys with them when they started. There had been a few suicides and a couple had been bitten and had been put down.

  “we were going to head for the coast till we heard the transmissions and since we were so close to this place, we thought we should check it out first.” Logan explained as he finished. “so that’s the story”

  “Why the coast?” Steve asked.

  “Well, it’s partly because of the Navy Broadcasts we have picked up.” Logan explained.

  “What navy broadcasts” Jared asked, curious despite himself and a little excited, if the Navy was still around then there might be something left of the country.

  Gary, who was cute in a nerdy way stood up and looked around. He was wearing a “Nerds are sexy too” t-shirt, which pretty much proved to Jill he had never had sex with a living woman. Well that and the way he kept staring at every set of boobs in the room told her he was at the very least socially awkward.

  Then again, she thought, he was guy, he just wasn’t as subtle as most older guys would have been. She had been around Jared and company to long she decided when the sudden urge to flash the guy just to see if he would faint passed thru her mind.

  “uh..well see, we found a military command truck, the ones with all the radios and such.” Gary said awkwardly then blushed as he remembered they had already been told about the truck. “anyway, five times now I’ve picked up broadcasts. Two were asking if there were any people still alive and please respond. But the others sounded like Pilots talking and being guided into a landing on a carrier deck.”

  “Why didn’t you just answer them” Jared asked, he looked like didn’t really believe the whole story or maybe Jill thought, he didn’t want to get his hopes up by believing in it.

  “We tried to answer you and to answer them. Thing is we could pick up distant signals. But we don’t have the power to answer unless we are close. I don’t have a good handle on the gear to be honest. So maybe it was something I did. Who ever has been broadcasting from here was using a ham unit. I could tell that from the Freq. It was you wasn’t it”

  Jared nodded. “it was my people” Jared admitted. The storm outside was getting worse and Jared kept looking at the door. Jill knew he had already radio’d the camp on the way here and told them the team might not be back tonight. So, she was a bit curious about why he was acting like he wanted to leave. “To be honest I’d like to know why you drove all the way back this way.” He asked finally and leaned against the wall. “Lets face it you were up on the edge of the Smokies, south of Knoxville and then you turned around came north west to get here.” She knew he wasn’t too worried most of Logan’s people here were armed with bats, and crowbars with only a few pistols scattered amongst them. Jared by himself was better armed and better trained than the whole motley crew of college coeds.

  “Well the thing is..” Logan said, then cleared his throat and began again. “ it kind of started with a dream.” That was the first time, that Jared gave any sort of reaction. Steve frowned but stayed silent as Logan began to explain. “Every one that had the dream in our group kind of dismissed it, mostly because it was too damn freaky, but then part of that dream came true, when we heard your radio conversations and twice you mentioned the name of the town we had dreamed about.”

  Logan, embarrassed at discussing the subject, quietly described the dreams that he and several others had, had. He knew how crazy it must sound but he didn’t care any longer.

  Later after Logan’s group had bedded down for the night, Jared and his people sat around one of the tables talking quietly in the light of oil lanterns. The rain pounded the tin roof, a steady soothing sound, that wove into the sound of the wind moaning under the eaves.

  “I don’t buy it, a dream come on!” Steve said looking at Jared. To call him skeptical would have been stretching the meaning of the word. He didn’t believe it, refused to believe it. Even with the Undead he still clung to as much of the old reality as he could and prophetic dreams and dreams of the dead visiting to say good bye were just to much for him.

  “There are a few of our people that have had some odd dreams.” Jill pointed out.

  “Yeah, dreams about loved ones who died, that’s natural no matter how real the dreams seem. But this, being told to hunt us down by a dead Professor. And what about the whole seek out a fort thing” Steve said shaking his head in dismissal. Jill wanted to say something, but it was up to Jared to talk about his dream not her.

  She looked over to where Kelly and his family had bedded down and saw the teen ager was awake. His eyes were focused on the slutty blond who had, against all common sense dressed in something lacy and skimpy for bed, no doubt trying to entice someone into joining her and that boy looked damn tempted she thought with a silent laugh.

  “Steve, Ive… damn it. I had the weirdest dream a little while back..” Jared said then slowly began to tell the story. Other than the wind and rain there was silence in the room as his friends listened.

  When he finished, Steve didn’t know what to say. “so you think your dad came back to tell you to go to fort Sumter.” He asked.

  “I don’t know, honestly I’ve tried to tell myself it was only a dream. But it was to weird, too real. And he warned me about people that work with the dark, and then we met Seth. Remember what Anne said, he had someone she never saw that would show up and talk to him. She never could understand what was said, but she knows it was two different voices. And Jason there thought he heard someone talking to Seth just before that sick SOB escaped and thought he saw someone with Seth. And then Chad’s story about seeing two men, and then when he looks back there’s just one guy creeping around their vehicles.” Jared said then paused and looked around “tell me that’s all coincidence” he challenged.

  There was silence around the table as the friends looked at one another. “now suddenly more than half the group has been thinking about leaving the camp. And no one really knows why, its just a feeling they all have. Except for the kids, the kids are ready to leave because momma and daddy told them to get ready for a trip in a dream.” Jared added

  “what the hell is going on?” Steve finally asked his disbelief beginning to crumble.

  “Buddy I have no idea” Jared replied. “But we might want to think about it doing what those dreams are telling us”

  CHAPTER 17

  Pappy had just finished walking the wall, of course calling what he did walking was a exaggeration. He was feeling antsy tonight, for no real reason that he could come up with. Jeff was on the LP/OP. which left only Vickie and Pappy to deal with and protect the little ones. He drew his rain gear closer about himself, trying to fight off the cold wind at his age it cut thru him like a knife.

  “to old for this shit” he muttered, but what can a man do when two wars and 80 plus years of life hadn’t managed to kill him. Or the damned zombies, in fact he had somewhat resented Jeff showing up at his house when things were going to hell. Pappy had, had things under control at the old homestead, in fact he had been enjoying himself. He was sure some uptight twat of a shrink would think he was nuts for enjoying it. but what did they know, probably all of them were zombies now anyway. So, analyze that you pricks.

  Pappy had just reached the travel trailer his family stayed in when the night erupted with a flash of light and a popping noise that almost deafened him. He looked around, and gaped for a moment as he saw that one of the antennas had been hit by lightning, it was okay, but the damn wall was actually on fire. “fire, fire, wake up you asshats, the walls on fire.” He shouted as loud as he could.

  Thankfully a few people heard him over the storm and spread the word. People rushed from the cabins ready to do whatever they could to put out the fire.

  Pappy started to hobble over to where he knew some buckets were kept then froze he realized that one of the fuel trucks was parked close to the wall, and the fire was licking its way towards the
Truck and its precious, very combustible cargo. Pappy made his way across the compound moving as fast as his old bones would allow. He was almost wheezing by the time he got to the truck.

  All he wanted to do when he got there was lean against the vehicle and give himself time to recover. But he couldn’t there just wasn’t time. if that fire reached the truck, the explosion wouldn’t just take out the wall, it would kill the people working to put out the fire and probably level the Cabins.

  “Move your wrinkled ass” he told himself as he made himself climb unsteadily into the cab of the truck ignoring the stab of pain in his head.

  The fire was close, to damn close he thought as he fumbled at the keys. His vision oddly blurred. He could feel the motor turn over more than hear it. instantly he threw it into gear afraid if he waited his vision might go, or the wave of weakness that swept over him might make him pass out. He could barely see through the mist that covered his eyes as he drove the truck away from the fire and parked it behind the barn. “that’s one, your not done” he told himself as he tried to turn and open the door but he was too weak and the pain that was now radiating out to his arms and legs was almost to much to bear. He leaned his head back against the seat rest as his vision darkened. “just rest a minute” he managed to say aloud.