The Clock Runs Down_The Servant

by Joe Kelly

  “Do you really not know?” Jill asked arching a delicate eyebrow in surprise. Henry and Stephanie hooking up had been the hot gossip around the camp for at least a week.

  Ronny looked up with a grin “well let me explain. boys have a penis and girls have a vagina, and when they love each other, or really want to bone, knock boots, do the dirty, bump uglys, boink, screw..” Ronny broke off abruptly as a hurricane of straws, napkins and other things flew his way. “Okay, okay, keep believing that as long as you don’t French kiss you can’t get pregnant. See if I care!” Ronny exclaimed with a laugh, the meeting broke up shortly after that.

  Two days later, after they had finished stripping the road block of everything that could be used, Ronny was lifting off in the ultralight again as the sun rose over the mountains in splash of color. He took a moment to enjoy the mist filled vales, then turned south. Jared wanted the south scouted so a scouting he would go.

  Jared watched the ultralight vanish into the distance then turned back to the team that would be going with him today. “all right let’s load up, make sure you have a full load out today. Use melee weapons if at all possible but don’t risk yourselves by attacking more than you can handle alone.”

  Jared had decided to check out an outfitters shop that was along the route he had chosen, it had used to supply the serious outdoors enthusiasts. Things had fallen apart so fast, and so many had died in the first days, he hoped to find a mostly stocked store, they could really use the extra gear. It also allowed him to scout the new route almost to the National Park.

  As the teams headed for the vehicles, Jared saw Kevin wheel himself out of the camp trying to catch up. The handicapped man had a determined look on his face. Jared sighed knowing what was coming.

  “Jared a word please.” Kevin, twenty-four, once a promising athlete, had managed to survive by the skin of his teeth. Being wheel chair bound and surviving was something to brag about too.

  “Kevin, we have talked about this” Jared said, as he kept an eye on the surroundings. No one liked standing out in the open for too long the dead had a way of showing up when you least expected it.

  “Don’t give me that shit, I talked, you acted like you listened, while thinking poor cripple, might endanger us all.” Kevin said angry at the thought of being treated like a kid.

  “Bullshit Kevin, I respect the hell out of you. But you can’t help us clear a building or secure an area.” Jared stated, in the world of today he couldn’t afford to be politically correct and pretend that someone with a disability like Kevins could do the same things as someone who could walk. There were all kinds of ways Kevin could help and be an asset, but he refused to listen. He wanted to share the dangers of going on runs not be left behind to do menial work, as he called it. Thought nothing was menial in the work that was necessary for their survival.

  “I can sit up on top of a damn vehicle and shoot anything that needs shooting” Kevin insisted.

  “For god’s sake Jared, Try him out.” Logan said from the van. “the man can shoot” Kevin flashed a look of thanks at Logan, then rounded on Jared again.

  “Logan’s right” Clay interjected. Logan shot him a look of thanks as Jared opened his mouth to argue then closed it again. There was no way he was going to argue that a wheel chair bound man had no business out in the field with a man who had lost his legs. Besides Kevin’s mutual admiration society would just keep arguing for him.

  “You think I don’t get how dangerous it is. You try getting out of a damned city in a wheelchair. And if I die so what, at least I die like a man. Not some puss sitting at camp with the kiddies being protected by the people with two working legs.” Kevin snapped angrily. Clay started to interrupt but closed his mouth and stayed out of it.

  Jared glanced up at the heavens, but if there was any message from the almighty he missed it. Logan had a point, but if something went down, he did not want to have make the decision to have leave Kevin behind or get somebody else killed trying to carry Kevin out of danger.

  He looked into the other man’s eyes and saw the desperate desire to be of use and to prove himself and knew he was going to cave.

  “Okay, get a fragging weapon and get in the damn van, you will ride with me.” Kevin whooped and popped a wheelie in his wheelchair turning at the same time. As the front wheels hit the ground again he sped towards the camp gate, thick arms pumping tirelessly.

  “Don’t let him leave me behind Logan” Kevin called out as he passed the van.

  “Not a chance buddy, I’ll stay behind if he tries it” Logan replied with a smile then turned to Jared. “thanks man, I know your worried about him being a liability. Trust me he is a good man and a good shot.

  “Mutiny this is mutiny” Jared muttered as he walked over and pointedly leaned against the van his hands tucked in his pockets.

  Once a small bustling town, it lay dead and silent under the gray sky, a decaying ghost of better times filled with dead hopes and dreams. Its streets filled with wreckage amidst burned out buildings and thru it all the undead roamed uncaring.

  They pulled into the parking lot of the strip center, the vehicles spacing out in a semi-circle around the front of the outdoors shop. The glass display windows had been broken out sometime in the past.

  Jared wasn’t happy seeing that, but had to hope that there might be some gear worth collecting inside. Jared and Logan lifted Kevin up on top of the van and then passed Kevin his rifle after the handicapped man had strapped himself to the Cargo rack. He gave Jared a thumbs up and looked as contented as a kid on Christmas morning. Jared shook his head slowly, why is it everyone in my damn group is so weird, he asked himself with a mental chuckle.

  Chris, and Brian collected shopping carts from an outside rack, and wheeled them back to the waiting men and women, who quickly chained the carts together and then stuck the lines of nested carts, between the vehicles they had arrived in to act as a barrier against the undead keeping them away from the storefront and giving the team a semi secure area to operate in. While the carts were being put in place Jared, and Jill watched the outfitters store for any undead. it didn’t take long for them to spot movement back in the shadows inside that store. There didn’t appear to be to many of the undead inside.

  As soon as they had enough carts strung up to block the gaps between each vehicle and between the vehicles and the building, Jared led his team inside while Steve and Ori remained outside with the second team keeping watch.

  The shop was a mess, overturned counters, broken displays, and glass from the broken window and counters littered the indoor/outdoor carpet.

  Jared spotted three undead stumbling around an empty store rack to his left. The mouths of the undead yawned open as they saw Jared and the others, and began to stumble towards the living in what Jared could only describe as a stumbling power walk.

  “Contact, three” Jared called out as he ran forward a tomahawk in each hand and launched into a spinning snap kick. The steel toe in his boot crushed the side of a skull, he landed lightly on the balls of his feet and struck the second Zombie with a rising cut to the jaw shattering the bone. Even as the crack of bone filled the air he twisted around and hooked the ankle of the last zombie with his offhand tomahawk and pulled it off balance, it crashed to the ground, Jared pivoted and drove the back spike of his tomahawk into its skull before it could lift its head up.

  “Feeling a bet tense are we” Chris asked Jared with a raised eyebrow. Jared shrugged then pulled his weapon free.

  “At least it’s not a clown” Jared commented with a wry grin. His dislike of clowns was legendary amongst his friends though no one in the group knew the story behind his intense almost pathological dislike.

  “Contact” Brian yelled as another zombie appeared from behind a display rack of Paddles. He backpedaled trying to stay out of reach of its arms. Logan moved up and split the head of the zombie with his axe but three more were right behind the first zombie. Jared grabbed Brian and pulled him back to the line of fi
ghters where the zombies were finished off quickly. The team swept the storefront finding no other zombies.

  “Just to let you know there’s a few more around out here Jared” Steve said over the radio.

  “No problems, keep me informed out” Jared said as he looked over the shelves. All the food was gone, as were the lanterns, sleeping bags, and other basic gear. But there was still a lot of climbing gear a few water purification systems and other items they could use.

  “Brian, John. Watch that stock room door, we are going to get this stuff out now. Then we deal with the stock room” He said, the two men nodded and went to stand behind a counter beside the stock room door.

  The clothes racks were mostly empty, though some summer clothes remained, mostly shorts and some shirts. More importantly the sales racks of winter clothing were almost full.

  Which made sense the people that had broken in here had been concerned with food and water. It had been summer when the dead had risen, and no one had been thinking beyond the immediate moment. He saw North face jackets and other top brand winter gear that would-be lifesavers in the coming months.

  “Let’s grab it all” Jared said. They began to stuff everything into duffels and plastic bags.

  Jared paused at a case full of watches then broke the glass and pulled out an expensive watch he had always wanted. “What so special about that one” Jill asked

  “it has an altimeter, barometer, speed and distance system. It’s rated for climbs up Everest and 190-foot dives. And it keeps time down to the a tenth of an atomic second.” Jared said, with an excitement that told her he had really liked this watch.

  “Don’t really see either one of those sports happening any more” Jill said quietly most of her attention on their surroundings.

  “I think diving might be the best sport these days, don’t expect you’d see to many zombies down there. and if they can’t swim they can’t catch me.” Jared said as he slipped the watch on, feeling guilty in way. Breaking the glass and taking the watch almost felt like stealing. “once they get waterlogged they will get stuck in the muck and the sand on the bottom.”

  “I think I will just stay right here on solid ground, where I can see the dead coming” Jill commented.

  Jared was quiet for a moment, “I hope one day, this will end so I can take you diving. I think you would love it.”

  Finally, they had everything worth taking loaded up. Chris had even loaded three canoes and a kayak when asked why he shrugged. “Never know when we might need them.” Chris had replied. Jared couldn’t argue that sentiment in the least. “Just remember, we have only so much room and as you keep pointing out, we can only drive so many vehicles.” Chris gave him the finger then headed over to the paddles and other gear waiting to be loaded on to the Deuces.

  Once the storefront had been stripped of all useable gear, Jared entered the stock room. He flashed his light around and saw plenty of boxes still on the shelves. Many had been opened and rifled thru. He suspected that when the front had been mostly stripped people had started looking back here, but it must have been close to the end for this much stuff to be left back here.

  The door to the employee break room was standing open, revealing an empty room with a few overturned chairs and a table with dried blood on it.

  Logan slowly approached the men’s bathroom door and knocked. Almost instantly, there was a thud as something hit the other side and began to scrape at the door. He reached for the handle, but Jill stopped him. “Unless you really have to go, just leave it closed.” She said not really wanting to open that door.

  “We can’t leave it for someone else to stumble over” he said. She frowned, but understood. It was becoming an unspoken rule to kill every zombie they found in a building anyway. She rested her hand on the sword that he had once dismissed so casually.

  “Well what are you waiting for, I am pretty sure it’s finished using the bathroom by now” she said motioning at the door handle, Logan smiled nervously and twisted the knob. He had to throw his body into the door, but it flew open sending not one but two zombies to the floor.

  He leaped forward planting his axe in the head of one, and then suddenly went flying as Jill hit him in the side with a shoulder. Her sword glittered in the flashlights as it swept the head from the second zombie that had been about to bite him in the leg. He shivered with fear realizing how close he had come to becoming infected. On the floor between two urinals lay a well gnawed and totally dead body still wearing the remains of an employee uniform. Just like the uniforms that the now dead zombies wore.

  He could bet on exactly how the poor bastard had died. The three of them had been attacked, and had managed to get into the bathroom and lock the door, one or two of them had already been bitten before they had locked themselves in and turned. I wonder if the power was off by then. Locked in a dark room, listening to the dead outside and then, he shook away the thought. What a way to fucking go he told himself, on a bathroom floor being eaten by your co-workers.

  I guess some one probably had it worse than this guy, but it’s hard to imagine.” He muttered.

  “I don’t want to imagine it” Jill said as she turned and walked out. He thought about that for a second and found he totally agreed with her.

  While the others cleared the stock room and the remaining bathroom, Jared headed for the manager’s office stopping at the closed door he knocked then waited listening for a moment. Hearing nothing, he opened the door and stepped into the office.

  Pictures of outdoors trips lined the walls, promo products were displayed on shelves. A huge fake potted plant sat to the left of the desk. The wall behind it lay deep in shadows. Sweeping his light back to the shelves he saw that the shelves were filled with different products that the store had carried. “Now that is cool.” He said to himself as he walked to the shelf to get a closer look.

  he picked up the Multi tool that had caught his eye, an Alien 2. Best described as a multi tool on steroids, swiss knives dreamed of growing up to be an Alien 2. With Twenty-six tools it was one of the best pieces of survival gear to have, especially in today’s world. Taking it and the p0uch that went with it, he slipped them into a cargo pocket on his pants then snagged a pair of Gargoyle sunglasses and slung them around his neck with the attached neck cord. He had wanted Gargoyles for a while but could never justify the expensive when he could find sunglasses for much cheaper. He stopped suddenly, the skin on his neck prickling, something wasn’t right.

  The smell, the damned smell was suddenly much stronger and coming from behind him, Oh shit he thought as he launched himself sideways, hitting the floor on his shoulder and rolling up onto the balls of his feet near the door to the hall.

  The zombie had to have been an inch away from biting the shit out of my neck he thought staring at the corpse that was turning towards him. Its face looked remarkable untouched. But there was a huge blood stain on the crotch of its pants. He really didn’t want to think about what wound might have caused that. It was also one of the faster ones. He hated that, but on occasion some of those things were faster than the others, he crouched with both tomahawks in his hands, the only light was that, that spilled in from the hallway, and from the head lamp he wore.

  Silently cursing himself for making a rooky mistake like going off alone he yelled “Contact” to warn the others then lunged forward and to the left using his off hand to strike the creatures right arm and turning it slightly, just enough to set it up for the foot sweep that sent it falling to the ground. He flipped the tomahawk around in his hand and drove the butt spike into the back of the things skull. With a sound like a popping melon the spike punched into the things skull and it went limp.

  He heard a scuff on the floor behind him, a second one just great. Next it will be a little clown car with two hundred clown zombies climbing out one by one with those blank vapid smiles painted on. Dead hands carrying horns and fake dynamite. All that ran thru his mind as he swung around and saw a female zombie, who in life had bee
n rather pretty and maybe eighteen. She wore only a pair of panties, with a bandage on her calf.

  She lunged for him teeth snapping, shredding her own lips. He rose up in a front kick that sent her flying backwards. Tired of the whole situation, he dropped the Tomahawk in his right hand and he drew his pistol and shot the zombie in the forehead. Its head snapped back as a spray of gore erupted from the back of its skull. Then it crumpled to the ground.

  He holstered his pistol and recovered his tomahawk as he did the light shone on the wall behind the plant. I let myself get distracted, AGAIN, next time I won’t be so lucky, he thought as he gazed at the door that had been hidden in the shadows. If anyone in the group had done, what I just did I would rip them a new one so fast and painfully that they wouldn’t know what hit them.

  Keep focused, moron and let’s get this over with, He angrily told himself.

  “Jesus Jared” Ori said from the doorway. “you okay?”