The Clock Runs Down: Half Past the Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  Ronny, saw the fuel truck’s brake lights flash and felt a moment of panic as he realized the threat the fire posed. “Mary, Fuel trucks.” he yelled pointing. She nodded, as she played the fire extinguisher across the rapidly spreading flames.

  Ronny ran over and was about to leap into the cab, when he smelled gasoline. He flipped on his flashlight and saw the storage tanks valve wasn’t completely closed, allowing a small amount to dribble out. he shut it and then leaped into the cab. He pulled up along side the other Fuel truck that had been moved. He parked then leaped out and ran back to the remaining fuel truck.

  As he drove it away, he saw flames race along a track of gas to the puddle that had been under the truck he first moved. That just struck him as wrong but he had a lot more to worry about at the moment so didn’t give it much thought.

  He parked the last fuel truck and was about to run back to help fight the fire. only to stop as he realized that someone was still in the cab of the First truck that had been moved.

  Drawing his pistol just in case, Ronny climbed up and looked in trucks window. Oh hell, he thought seeing Pappy sitting there head tilted far back, mouth open. He looked dead, not taking any chances., Ronny tapped on the glass, and got no response.

  “fuck it!” he said aloud as he took the risk and opened the door. He checked pappy’s pulse, it was thready but there. “We need a Medic” he shouted.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  Jared pulled up to the charred gate and stopped. He climbed out of his van and stared at the fire charred wall. In places it was still smoldering, thin curls of smoke rising into the air.

  The newly installed gates creaked open, and Sharon waved them thru. From the look on her face something had happened other than the fire. He thought as he waved at Jill to drive the van thru, he walked past the gates and waited till Logan’s Jeep had cleared the gates then helped Sharon shut the gates and bar them.

  He could see a pile of corpses on the north side, where Rob and warren were dragging the corpses to the bluff and tossing them over.

  He turned to Sharon who looked grim. “what happened?” He asked.

  “A lightning strike started the fire, and Pappy got the alarm out. And..” she hesitated, looking upset.

  “and?” He prompted his emotions already surging, as his mind anticipated the worst news possible.

  “Pappy..,” she said hesitating then “ its bad Jared. Pappy had a stroke, he saw the fire racing towards the area where the fuel trucks were parked and ran to move them. Ronny moved the last two and found Pappy still in the cab of the first one. Jeff’s really fucked up. And while that was happening, almost two hundred of the smellys showed up. No one got bit, but they almost got in. it was insane.” She answered.

  Smoke still hung in the air as he walked across the compound; Shelley lifted a hand in greeting but said nothing as he walked up the steps of the cabin and opened the heavy wooden door.

  Pappy was strapped to the stretcher they had taken out of an ambulance they had found and stripped on the way to the camp. Jeff sat nearby his eyes red but other than that he seemed calm. The left side of pappy’s face was slack, dead. The right eye moved and seemed to focus on him. He had been intubated so he couldn’t talk even if he wanted to.

  Linda looked frazzled as she motioned for Jared to step outside. He followed her out on to the rain-slicked deck. She didn’t waste time. “I can’t do a damn thing for him Jared. nothing. If things were normal they would run a lot of tests see how bad the damage was, and depending on the damage either place him on life support or get him into therapy to regain some movement. But I don’t have the stuff here to even do the tests and even if I did I’m not sure I would know what I was looking at. I’m not a doctor.” She said, shaking her head, upset that she couldn’t do more.

  “will he live” Jared asked.

  “Maybe, if you call that living. He might be a foul mouthed pain in the ass, but he pulled his weight around here. but now…” her voice trailed off. “we have to keep him strapped down. If he isn’t strapped down and died and no one was here to see it.” she said shaking her head at the thought. Jared nodded in understanding. Pappy would rise and start attacking people. It was possible they could lose several people before any one realized what was going on.

  “Have you talked to Jeff?” he asked. “explained things” she nodded.

  “he hasn’t said much. But he is your friend so.” Jared didn’t know if he had the right as a friend to even suggest to Jeff what Linda was hinting at. Putting the old man out of his misery. That’s what she meant.

  What if he is crippled and never recovers, Jared asked himself. Someone will have to take care of him, and that will take people away from guard duty, and he will use food that ….

  Disgusted at himself, He stopped that train of thought. Maybe for survival that was the right way to look at things, but it damn sure wasn’t the Right thing to do at least not for him. oh he could argue both sides of this, but when it came down to it, He wanted to believe in the hope that at some point Pappy would recover. Hope, that’s something in real short supply right now and something I think we need to hold on to.

  And her suggestion rubbed him wrong on another level, all his life he’d had a code. When he was in the military he had believed his duty was to protect those who were unable to protect themselves, to do the right thing. It didn’t matter what the Politicians had thought or the justifications they had used to push a conflict, he justified his actions through the lens his beliefs and in Duty and Honor and had never violated his beliefs or been given an order that violated his beliefs, Thankfully.

  But now, he also had to think about the safety, and survival of everyone else including twenty six kids, so he had to at least consider the option. The world wasn’t what it had been and Jared was going to have to live with what it had become. The question was could he live with what he might become.

  Logan, Chad, Tatiana and Gary were almost invisible in the main room of the Cabin. It was obvious that some kind of crisis had occurred overnight, and the old man on the stretcher looked pretty screwed up. They waited while Jared stepped outside to talk to a woman. Not sure what to do surrounded by people they didn’t know and weren’t sure they could trust.

  Finally, Jared walked back into the room while the woman he had left with went and checked the old guy. “why don’t you come with me” Jared said as turned away from the stretcher, motioning at Logan and his friends to follow he led them across the grounds and into another Cabin. Things were less hectic in cabin two, and almost immediately they were surrounded by people who were apparently excited at seeing new faces, a babble of voices asked a thousand and one questions that they were barely able to answer. Kelly and his family were taken off to get fed and given some new clean clothes and Jared doubted they would be done eating in time to make the meeting.

  Jared hid a smile and managed not to laugh as he realized Carol was flirting with Logan. Well if she was lucky Logan might just like women 15 years older than he was and who had a new born. But the way he kept close to the Pretty Russian woman Jared suspected Carol would be disappointed. Unless.. no leave that alone he told himself, you do not need to even think about that.

  Gary, and Rob were already deep in conversation about all kinds of Techno nerdish things that Jared didn’t really get. He suspected they were all going to have understand that kind of stuff too if they hoped to keep technology alive and rebuild. But he would cross that geek rubicon when he had to.

  Finally, everybody but Linda and Jeff and his family were assembled. Jared got down to introducing Logan and his friends to everyone. Then had Logan tell how they had been in Knoxville and how bad it had been on Z day. He noticed that everyone listened intently; especially when the younger man emphasized that they had only survived by keeping on the move. Jared made a mental note to talk about that with Logan later.

  That of course sparked a new debate one that Jared had known was coming, whether to stay or go. He knew what his gut said, g
et out soon. But he wasn’t at the point where he believed it. Enough… lets be honest, he thought, I refuse to leave here till I know for a fact that theres no hope we can stay and survive.

  Surprisingly far more of his people wanted to head east than he had thought, regardless of winter coming on. Most thought winter might be the best time, because the zombies might freeze or move slower due to temperature. Jared harbored no such beliefs, not any more, those things didn’t even bleed not really, what emerged from their bodies were just decaying fluids. Besides applying logical thought to zombies was just a mistake.

  By the time the debate wound down, Jared, feeling guilty, had managed to convince everyone to stay put for now. He wanted to make sure that If they left it was because there they had to, not uproot themselves and head east all based on a dream and gut feelings. But if it turns out your wrong, if your faced with the proof that you need to get out, what then. He asked himself, then we leave I’m not going to get people killed because I refuse to believe in things I don’t like. He leaned back in his chair and forced a smile. “Okay folks, meetings over, I hear that theres fresh tea in the kitchen and beth made brownies earlier. She tried to hide em but being your great leader, I caught her in the act and now I give them to you.”

  “I made them in front you, you would have to have been blind and have a bad nose to miss it.” Beth retorted as she headed for the kitchen followed by laughter. The laughter faded away as she returned to the kitchen and the smell filled the room. “Take your time, I only have enough supplies left to make a few more batches and then,” she said sadly not finishing the sentence. The group ate, slowly, and began to wind down talking quietly amongst themselves about inconsequential day to day things, apocalypse small talk as Jill had started calling it.

  Jared sat there working up a plan that would depend heavily on sending Ronny up in the ultralight to do another fly over in the areas of town they hadn’t been in and see how much was burning or had been burned, and what might be left for them to salvage. If the group had to start traveling forty-five miles or more to look for food, ammo and fuel there really wasn’t much of a point in staying here at the camp, they would waste far to much fuel making runs to secure supplies.

  After a long conversation with Logan, Jared decided the younger man had a good head on his shoulders for being twenty two and no real training. Jared had wondered over the years just how much potential was wasted in the country by the out of sight education costs.

  None of that mattered anymore zombies were the great equalizers. The smart and the stupid were out there right now dead and walking. In the case of some of the stupid they weren’t much different now than before.

  He shook himself out of that train of thought it was pointless really and he felt guilty making fun of people who had died screaming in terror as they were ripped apart.

  Ori, Logan and his friends piled into Logan’s jeep and pulled out of the camp. He was going to bring all of his folks up here to help put the camp to rights. Jared was now more than eager to finish getting everything set to bug out just in case. Deep down inside he knew they would.

  First, he needed to set up routes, load outs, consider every angle. As soon as he had that roughed out he needed to organize teams to hunt up RV’s. he knew where four RV’s were for sure, and the camp grounds around the area should have more.

  As soon as Logan had left, Jared gathered up Ronny and six others to haul the ultralight down to the main road to be assembled for a recon job. As soon as Ronny returned Rob would install the digital camera he had been hounding Jared over and Ori would install a rack to hold a couple of the propane bombs. He grinned at the image of Ultralight bombing runs over hordes of undead.

  Jared stepped back as the motor on the craft fired up and in second Ronny was hurtling down to the road, as soon as the wings caught air the small craft sailed up and away.

  While they waited for Ronny to return Jared came up with a few ideas about a RV or Semi trailer set up as a Garage, machine and woodshop that he talked over with Rob and Steve, something like that would be a huge benefit to what would amount to a modern day nomadic lifestyle.

  Two hours later, the ultralight returned. Jared watched as it lined up and came in for a landing his face blank not showing any of the worry he felt about the news he was about to hear. It bounced twice then rolled to a stop. Ronny climbed out looking worried.

  “You’re not going to like this” Ronny told Jared as the others broke the ultralight down for transport. “barely saw undead anywhere around town, but coming back I swept out over the reservoir and along Blackmore road, those things were all over the ridges and bottoms, heading in the general direction of the camp Jared.”

  “Damn,” Jared muttered. “I had hoped that they wouldn’t wander out this way as a horde and I’m thinking that the terrain won’t work as an obstacle like I had thought it would, hoped it would, maybe it will for at least for a few of them but we are going to have to assume the majority of them will make it into the area.” Jared said softly as he thought over his options. None of those options were good at least not from the perspective of long term survival, the odds only went up if they did pack up and leave.

  .

  The camp was quiet almost subdued once they returned and word got around, “Steve” Jared said as they stood on the porch looking at all they had accomplished. “I want you to lead the Teams to recover the RVs and other gear for the next couple of days”

  “what are you going to be doing?” Steve asked suspiciously. Worried that Jared might be planning on doing something stupid.

  “If those things are headed here, in the kinds of numbers that Ronny saw, we both know that leaving before we get trapped is the only real option and if that’s the case I need to plan out routes and work out contingencies, so we aren’t just driving around aimlessly hoping to keep out of their reach. And I plan on having Ronny fly recon the next couple of days to keep an eye on the undead to see if they divert along the way.”

  Steve nodded slowly, Jared had been a hell of a planner back in the Army at least when he had the time to do so, and he was one of the best at making plans on the fly. “All right, not a problem.”

  Jill had been less understanding when he almost locked himself in the bedroom, sitting at the desk and pouring over maps, guide books and any other scrap of information he had on hand for the next two days. Stopping only to find out what Ronny had seen on each flight and to occasionally eat dinner.

  Ronny’s info while only as accurate as two days of observation seemed to indicate that the undead were taking the most direct route towards the area that the camp sat in regardless of how rough the terrain might be and most of them were making it through.

  “The problem,” He said aloud, after Ronny had left, while rubbing the bridge of his nose with two fingers. “is that we just don’t have the ammunition to fend off a large group of undead.” And if a large enough group attacks, Jared thought, the group’s Ammo supply would bottom out once they had to engage the undead. Fighting hand to hand against a large group was almost impossible. There just wasn’t a way they could fight hand to hand against large numbers without losing far too many people and Jared didn’t want to lose any one if he didn’t have too.

  No matter what I do, everything just keeps pushing us towards having to leave. Damn it I do not believe in Fate or destiny but still. So, let’s just face it, we are either leaving soon or this coming spring but either way we are leaving. And if we stay, I think that one morning, sooner rather than later, we will wake up to find we are surrounded by the undead, trapped and waiting to starve to death. Halloween, he thought not sure why, I think they will be here by Halloween. It felt right, not that he wanted to rely on gut hunches and odd feelings.

  Dreams and now hunches, hello goat’s intestines and Crystal balls, maybe we should try numerology and bible codes too. Read all about it PlanetX is just around the corner lurking in space waiting to pounce on poor old mother earth and molest her.

 
; Don’t get carried away, he told himself, but let’s face it Halloween is just too good a day for the universe to pass up for an undead slaughter. Enough!

  He rubbed his eyes and stood up from the old wooden desk that he had restored several years back and stretched. He looked down at the map he had been working on and the eight routes to the coast he had come up with. Resupply would be complicated and dangerous, but they could manage it.

  Now at least if they had to leave, and he was pretty sure it was when not if, there was a plan in place. He would have Anne and Carol copy the routes onto other maps, so that everyone would have a copy, and if they became separated from the rest of the group they would still be able to link up with the group again by following the maps.

  He sighed and picked up the brass donkey paper weight on the old desk and turned it over and over in his hands. The Brass ass of cripple creek, his dad had called it. It had been a souvenir from their trip out to Cripple creek, Colorado when he had been sixteen. A gag gift. The trip had been partly to get Jared out of the familiar and away from the memories of a year earlier. He had loved it there, and the other places they had visited on that trip, deserts to wooded mountain slopes. He smiled at the memories then walked over and stuck the Brass ass in his pack, that and the few family pictures he had brought would be all of his old life that would be taken with him.