The Clock Runs Down_The Servant

by Joe Kelly

  They had found the Camp. But they weren’t alone, there were vehicles parked in front of two of the cabins and thirty-five undead were pawing at the walls and windows. Or they had been, at the sound of the motors, some of the undead turned and began to shamble towards the convoy. Jared placed the van into park “Team one lets deal with them, team two rear guard” he said as he jumped out of the van. In moments the rest of the team joined him. “Ronny” Jared transmitted.

  “Ronny here” Jared heard in his earbud.

  “stand by we need to clear out a few things before you come in” Jared said.

  “roger that out” Ronny replied. Jared didn’t doubt Ronny wasn’t having as much fun as he normally would have. In fact, Ronny had landed twice to wait out bad parts of the storm.

  They advanced on the zombies moving slow and shooting smooth and steady, dropping the zombies that moved towards the convoy. Leaving those still around the building for hand weapons, so as not endanger whoever was inside. as the last of the advancing undead fell, Team one slung their rifles and drew melee weapons then as one they waded into the undead still laying siege to the two cabins. It was over in minutes thankfully.

  “Ronny, it’s clear now” Jared said, as he waved the convoy forward and pointed to where he wanted them to park in a line on the river side of the air strip.

  “Thanks” A man, said stepping from the first cabin. He looked excited, nervous and worried pretty much at once. He was possibly the shortest man Jared had ever seen four foot eleven if he was lucky. Late twenties, sandy blond hair, carrying a rifle that was almost as long as he was tall.

  Jared heard Ori mutter something about Umpa lumpas. Chris whispered the word hobbit. Jared ignored them both. “Your welcome” Jared said as someone shouted over at the RVs and the sound of a revving motor and tires spinning in soft dirt could be heard. One of RV’s had gotten stuck Jared realized.

  “On it” Steve said before Jared could say a word. He turned and jogged back towards his truck.

  “I’m Seth, you can call me Jack” the short guy said introducing himself and looking questionably at Jared, who force himself to smile, that name grated on his nerves, he hoped Anna wouldn’t freak out on hearing it. Jared introduced himself and those of Team one standing there with him in the rain.

  “How long have you been trapped in there” Jared asked nodding towards the cabins.

  “A week, me and Keith went into town to get food, which we managed to pull off. But some of the zombies followed us back here. “

  “You folks planning on staying here” Seth asked as a cute woman, girl next door kind of cute, peered out the doorway. She had wavy shoulder length brown hair, that framed her slender face, bright brown eyes and a pert nose.”

  “Who are they?” she whispered just loud enough that Jared could hear her. Seth started to introduce Jared and the others, then he heard the drone of an airplane. Seth and his wife stared mouths sagging open as they saw the first airplane since last June approaching the field for a touchdown.

  By the time Ronny lined up and touched down. Every single person had exited the cabins, without any concern that the strangers might be dangerous, the plane was like some magic charm of a lost civilization that drew them outside mouths hanging open, and delight in their eyes.

  “And that Jack is why we are here,” Jared said pointing to the runway “this camp has a runway, which we need. So, you’re stuck with us,” Jared said ignoring the two kids that clung to their mother’s legs.

  Seth introduced his wife Paula, and his son Jimmy five. And then Keith and his wife Nina, and their daughter Gem who was six. The other six people were, or had been Travelers on the road that day in June, they had escaped the roads together, and had ended up staying together till by luck they had stumbled across the camp.

  Gem and Jimmy watched the airplane taxi up and stop with totally fascination till their mothers shooed them back into cabins and away from the bodies of the undead strewn about the cabins.

  The camp was suddenly whirling with activity, as equipment was set out. The plane chocked, the group of fishermen, almost as heavily armed as the Teams grabbed their gear and trooped down to the river.

  While Jared talked with the Seth and the others, Team two swept the other buildings for zombies and then moved out into the woods. They found six more zombies out there but thankfully that was it.

  By eight that night, everything was set up and Seth and his people were sitting in the lodge digging into the Venison that had been cooked that evening. They had even broken out the flour and other ingredients that Lloyd’s folks had supplied them with for making biscuits. Seth and the others stared at the Fresh corn on the cob, venison, Mashed potato’s, Gravy and biscuits like it was the ambrosia of the gods. They somehow managed not to attack their food when they got their plates.

  Jared shoveled up the Gravy with his biscuit and moaned in pleasures. Then grinned at Jill who only rolled her eyes and continued eating. Even the instant potato’s tasted good, especially drowned in the gravy. But that wouldn’t last if they ate them more than a few times a week.

  Finally, with the meal done and the dishes cleaned and put away. Jared pulled out his notebook and began to ask Seth and the other’s questions, about the layout of Hendersonville. Till he had a more or less accurate map to go by with different businesses marked on it.

  Ronny had gotten excited when Keith had mentioned there was an old Air museum at the Hendersonville airport. If there was any place they could get parts for the Duck it would be there, and he needed to refuel and thought that using regular aircraft fuel would be much better than basic unleaded fuel.

  In the end, the objectives that Jared had marked out was the RV Dealership, a Mechanics shop that did custom 4x4 work, a Wal-Mart distribution center which was located on the edge of town, which made it fairly isolated from populated areas, a National Guard armory, and lastly the Airport.

  Steve looked at the hand drawn map and then looked at Jared. “You do realize this could take more than a month. Right” Jared agreed and tapped the Symbol for the distribution center.

  “This is our primary, if we don’t hit anything else we have to hit here.” Jared said, tapping the Distribution center marked on the map, he was damn glad Seth and Keith were from town, or he would never have known about that place. For half a moment he considered just seizing the place and setting up a permanent camp. There should be enough supplies in there to last a year.

  Don’t go making mountains out of mole hills, Jared told himself. You haven’t even seen the place, it could be stripped bare or even have burned down.

  “We need to plan this out right, and what we need badly is a real map of the city, and I can only think of one place to get one” Jared said. Ori groaned knowing what was coming. “The courthouse”

  Four days later, both Teams entered Hendersonville, moving slowly down the streets. Reaching Main Street, they turned north weaving amongst the abandoned cars and the wrecks.

  As they closed in on downtown, the buildings changed from more modern structures to those built of red, tan or dark brown brick. They looked straight out of a movie from the thirties. Tattered bunting still dangled from some facades. Several of the old store windows had been shattered. A banner, one end had ripped free and was dangling in the street, proclaiming an upcoming Fourth of July Parade and picnic.

  A Police cruiser was parked in the middle of the street, at Main and tenth. An ambulance was sticking out of Maxine’s flower shop just past Sixth Street. A four car pile up sat at the intersection of fourth and main. Trash blew slowly across the street driven by the still cool spring breezes.

  There were not many zombies around yet. But that would change the longer they stayed here. Jared didn’t want to make plans based on the rough map he had drawn and then find out someones recall was screwed, and a road supposed to take them to their goal was actually a dead end and trapped them with a few thousand zombies right behind them.

  “Team two secure the perim
eter, Team one will clear,” he said over the radio the van bumped over the curbs into the broad lawn that surrounded the courthouse. Team two would for now drive around the square running down zombies but there was no way the sound of the Deuce couldn’t be heard over most of the six square miles of the town, which meant the undead were on their way and the clock was running.

  Coming to a stop before the steps of the courthouse, they parked across the sidewalk at the base of the steps and leaped out. Taking only a moment to do a final weapon check and adjust gear. Satisfied they pounded up the stone steps and thru the double glass doors. In the hallway, which led to the Lobby, seven zombies turned and began to head their way. Using only hand weapons, the team raced to meet them.

  Logan planted his axe in the forehead of a rail thin zombie wearing a dark suit. Steve wailed away with Louisville slugger. Jared hung back with Ori and Jill, to make sure no zombies came out of the offices behind the lead team members.

  With the zombies in the hall down Jared, Ori and Jill cleared the offices, which were empty. For a moment Jared half expected to see corpses placed around each room and posed, like at Bergstown, but that bastard was long dead now.

  “Hurry it up” Steve said over the radio. “We have company coming in from the lobby.”

  “Damn it” Jared said scanning the walls of the last office, “No map here” he commented. “Let’s go help in the Lobby and make sure nothing comes up behind us.” He said heading for the door.

  Clearing the lobby was slightly harder than the hallway, being much wider and with two intersecting hallways and a staircase; it took work to keep zombies from getting around behind them. Once they had the area around the main doors cleared. Jared pulled a chain and padlock from his cargo pocket and chained the doors shut. Finally, as the last zombie fell they had time to take a breather. Jared consulted the directory mounted on the wall, saw the office he need and led the way.

  As soon as he entered the city Registrar’s office, he saw exactly what he wanted mounted on the wall. Taking Logan with him, he left the others to take care of the few zombies in the suite of offices. Five minutes later they had the map out of its display case and folded.

  “Instead of going back thru the lobby, let’s take the door at the end of the hall if there aren’t many zombies outside on this side we can run back around to the van.” Entering the hall again, they could see that more zombies had appeared in the lobby, probably from the other hall they hadn’t checked and from the upstairs. Jared ran to the other end of the hall they were in and looked out the window set in the door and saw nothing on this side of the courthouse. Team two was doing a bang up job of keeping zombies away from the courthouse.

  He threw open the outside door “Come on, let’s go” he said holding the door open and counting as each team member went past. They ran across the grass and around the building to the van. Steve realized Jared had a phone book tucked under his arm. “You and those damn phone books” Steve laughed as they piled into the Van. Jared tossed him the phone book as Jill got the Van moving.

  Jared had Logan unfold the map and find the street the RV dealer was on. He wanted to drive by so he had an idea what it looked like. Logan quickly found the right street it and five minutes later they were cruising past a huge fenced in area full of fifth wheel trailers, and everything from Class A to class C RVs. And one or two odd looking custom RV’s as well. In the back of the yard was a metal barn like structure with two large doors. Jared saw no undead inside the yard. It might actually be a snap to get in and out of there after all.

  As they passed a walled condo complex, Jill pointed out a sheet hanging of the balcony that said alive inside. He slowed but seeing all the undead inside the walls, he sped back up. No one appeared on the apartment balcony to shout or wave at them. Probably dead by now He thought, but he would come back by a few times more before leaving the area and give them a couple of chances just in case.

  They swung wide around the town, passing thru the Druid hills subdivision; one of the nicer places to live or had been. No doubt all the zombies in the yards and streets had driven property values way down.

  The distribution center as turned out was placed a mile outside of town, a newish four lane road, wide enough to accommodate the large numbers of semi trucks that would have came and went on a daily basis, cut through a half mile of woods. Jared smiled as he finally saw the holy grail of Looters dreams.

  The facility was about the size of four footballs fields enclosed in by a chain link, razor topped fence. Close to the gate was a two story building that Jared assumed had served as the administrative center for the five huge warehouses in the back. The warehouses were evenly spaced with enough room for eighteen wheelers to turn around and park between each of them.

  “Its larger than I expected” Jill commented.

  “it used to supply every Wal-Mart in its district. From the size I’d say there were quite a few in its district.” Jared said, “I remember reading some where that distribution centers for WalMart serviced a hundred to a hundred and fifty stores.” His attention was focused on the undead inside the fence and not so much on the warehouses at the moment. “there’s a lot of the undead in there.” He commented.

  “Okay, we need to close that gate so no more undead can get inside before we get back, when I jump out you cover me.” Jared said as he scooped up a length of chain and a pad lock he had brought for just this reason. “ready?” He asked Jill and Logan. Jill nodded silently, she wasn’t happy about his constantly taking chances but she understood why. Logan looked out the rear window “theres more than a few back here. But I got em.” He said.

  “one at the door too” Jared said. He glanced at the rearview mirror making sure no other undead were along the side of the van then opened the door with enough force to knock the zombie to the ground. Logan pushed open the rear door and opened fire.

  Leaping to the ground Jared put two rounds into the walking corpse he had knocked down then raced to the gate. A zombie ten feet inside the yard stumbled towards the gate, “not today stinky” Jared muttered as he shot the zombie down. The rest of his team was steadily picking off any zombie close enough to be a threat, so he wasn’t worried about his back.

  The closest zombie inside the fence wouldn’t be close enough to be a threat for at least ten minutes, Jared decided as he tugged at the gate. It was one of those long rolling gates used in so many facilities. Normally it would have moved back and forth by a motor. Without power it wasn’t going to move unless the motor was disengaged. Damn, he muttered as he ran to the gatehouse, a zombie was trapped inside, figures he thought as he opened the door. A well-placed snap kick dumped the undead on its rotting butt his pistol finished the job.

  He glanced back over his shoulder, to make sure he had enough distance between himself and the nearest undead. A little he thought as he stepped into the guard shack his eyes sweeping the console below the main window. monitors, an alarm button, blood stains check, a large button that had probably opened and closed the gate and there it was, a box mounted lever with a label that read ‘manual Gate release’. Another glance outside assured him he had another minute as long as there wasn’t a jogger or sprinter out there. He grasped the lever and pulled, it resisted for a moment then moved.

  “you might want to hurry up,” Steve’s voice said in his earbud, “they are coming out of the woods.”

  “roger, almost done” Jared replied as he ran back to the gate. This time the gate moved, he pulled it closed and secured it with the chain and padlock he carried.

  He climbed back into the van and sighed in relief once the door was shut, “I hate those things” He muttered. “let’s get home” he transmitted.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “what are they doing to the deuce’s?” Steve asked as he came to stand beside Jared. Kelly, Ians dad, and Rob were busy welding some odd looking contraptions together. “I asked them to figure out a way to make the Deuces and some of our trucks better at zombie sweeping.” Jared c
ommented.

  “Why Kelly?” Steve asked as he pulled a piece of horded beef jerky from a cargo pocket.

  “you don’t remember that off road rig of his?”

  Steve nodded slowly as he thought back, “that white F350, he had turned into a rock crawler or the red Dodge”

  “the Dodge, he had four others too and he rebuilt them all himself. Figured if I got him involved I wouldn’t’ have to use any of the dirty dozen to do it. I have plans for us.” Not to mention it got Kelly out from under his wife for a while, for whatever reason their relationship had been under a lot of strain lately. Jared had actually worried that Joan might commit suicide and had asked several people to keep a unobtrusive eye on her.

  No matter how much it looked like his people were dealing well with the surviving, the stress and fear was still there under the surface waiting to drag a man or woman down at any moment.