The Clock Runs Down: Half Past the Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  The two men circled around each other, gliding in and out of attacks, sometimes moving with blinding speed, other times it seemed deceptively slow.

  Jill who had been determined to work harder to perfect her stick fighting skills paused to watch the two men spar. They were both masters, she thought. Jared had been trained in several different styles, she thought recognizing some of the varied attacks and blocks he used. That might normally have given him an edge against most martial artists with less training, but not against Allen who himself had mastered at least three other styles.

  At Five eleven Jared stood only a few inches taller than Jill. He wasn’t a huge man, but he was solid muscle with a Gymnasts build. He kept his reddish blond hair cut military style and had a touch of crow’s feet at the corners of his Emerald green eyes. He had a solid, dependable feeling about him that she liked, and he was one of those rare men who had confidence in himself and his abilities that inspired the people around and some how never slid over into the arrogance that so many men had, even those who didn’t know their butt from a hole in the ground.

  and it didn’t hurt that he was cute as hell, she told herself. Just watching him made her regret having sworn off men for a while. Okay cute is an understatement she told herself.

  And he could fight she thought watching as he blocked a kick with a forearm block, went into a foot sweep, then leaped up and into a flawless spinning snap kick which Allen barely blocked. Jared twisted into a flip to gain some space but had his feet swept out from under him as he landed. Jill almost started laughing at the look on Jared's face as he lay on the mat. Then Jared himself started laughing.

  “That’s cheating!” Jared said, leaping to his feet and grinning at Allen. Who looked as satisfied as a cat that had just eaten the proverbial canary

  “Cheating is using a tactical nuclear weapon in a CQC, anything else is just unexpected or failure to see the obvious” Allen replied with a smile.

  Jared bowed and they shook hands. “Next time, I'll wipe the mat with you,” he promised.

  “I look forward to it,” Allen replied. “But so far you have failed to put words to action” Allen added then gave a pointed look in Jill’s direction.

  Jared chuckled ignoring the silent suggestion then walked over to gather his things, focusing on his gym bag, so he didn’t stare at Jill. It was hard not to but he wasn’t going to creep on her either. But did she ever rock that work out outfit.

  “You have a good form” Jill said as she flipped her ponytail over her shoulder and watching as Jared picked up his gym bag. Secretly admiring the play of muscles in his arms and shoulders as he moved. Her eyes lingered on the intricate Celtic knotwork Tree of life tattoo inside a knotwork circle on his right shoulder. It’s fitting, she thought though unable to really pin down any reason to think so. In fact he really didn’t strike her as the type to get a tattoo much less two, he had a knotwork triskelion on his left shoulder as well.

  She knew she wanted to go out with him, but she was torn. If she did he might turn out to be a closet butt head, she had fallen into that trap before and secondly after her last relationship she just wanted some time to herself. A lot of time, she added silently.

  It wasn’t that she thought all men were Asses, just that her ability to choose a good man to date sucked.

  Jared stood there for a second wondering why he had been reluctant to actually commit to asking her out and to be honest he didn’t know. But something else was at play today, a feeling that this was the day and he thought he might just take the plunge.

  “Thanks” Jared replied, deciding that telling her, her form was outstanding was probably not the best thing to say. “I’ve watched you spar, I’d have to say you're as good or better than I am” He always worried that when he gave a woman a compliment that they would just assume he had ulterior motives. Not to mention he had probably complimented her skills more than once over the last four years, so not the best way to get the conversation rolling to ask her out. Way to go, how old are you? Jared asked himself.

  In the four years they had shared the class he’d had ample time to watch her train. Like himself she had studied several styles, few of them the so called soft styles which impressed him. She fought as hard as any man in the class and no matter how hard she might go down, she got right back up and waded back in. I wonder what the people at her job must think when she comes to work with bruises or a black eye. For a second his mind conjured an image of her in a tasteful dress and high heels walking into an office where the stunned men gaped at the massive black eye she sported.

  She smiled at the compliment and Jared felt a response that was definitely not appropriate for the moment. “Thank you,” she replied sounding just distant enough to put a wall between them. She put away the practice sticks and despite herself flashed Jared a smile that sent his temperature up ten more degrees.

  Allen watched them for a moment then shook his head slowly, for his two best students, they were denser than lead he decided as he headed for his office wondering if it were at all possible to actually kick some sense into either of their heads. They had been dancing around each other for several years now, obviously attracted to each other and yet never quite reaching the point of dating. I swear it will take a brick to the head to get them to commit to dinner.

  “Guess you’re not going to spar today after all” Jared said watching Allen walk into his office.

  Before she could reply they could hear worried voices raised from the beyond the double doors that led to the gym. “shut up and listen” Some one shouted, it sounded like Taylor one of the gyms personal trainers Jared thought.

  Instantly Jared thought of the news of the past two days, and began to worry. “What’s going on now?” he asked aloud.

  “I have no idea” Jill said feeling worried herself. The news had been full of weird stories from all over the world the last few days and as much as she was determined to carry on like normal she was worried that it was going to get worse. Together they headed for the double doors and the rising babble of voices. As they passed through the doors, she brushed against him. He caught a whiff of shampoo and sweat, Damn she smells so good, he thought almost smiling. Stop it, stop right now.

  Most of the people in the Gym had gathered around the bank of TVs by the treadmills. From what Jared could see, the news was showing some riots in what looked like London. Fires were raging out of control and police and army units were firing into the crowds. “Mother of God, “ he said softly going to get a closer look, what ever was going on it looked totally insane. He winced as he saw a line of Armored personnel carriers roll through a crowd purposely running down the rioters.

  .

  “Hey Lisa turn up the Volume” someone shouted. Lisa, who was manning the gyms front desk, lifted the remote and pushed the button without even looking. She wasn’t known for her friendliness, and many had speculated she was actually hooked to a life support unit hidden under the desk. At least she was good looking which almost made up for her almost complete lack of anything resembling enthusiasms for her job or interactions with people.

  The volume rose and the calm, professional voice of a reporter could be heard clearly as the location shot changed, Jared recognized the Chrysler building. What the hell is going on? He asked himself. Sure that had been quite a few weird news stories over the last few days but this… how could it have gotten this bad since yesterday.

  “The chaos here in New York is only getting worse as the hours go by. The Mayor has declared a state of emergency here and asks that all citizens stay in their homes or to shelter in place at work. The streets are not safe while the riots are in progress. I repeat….”

  “What’s going on” Jared asked, turning to Chuck one of the personal trainers.

  Chuck looked shaken as he replied. “Riots all over the place, New York, Houston, London, Moscow, Beijing. The CDC says its some kind of virus, the people infected are going nuts and attacking everyone they come across.” Chuck added his
face pale. “Yesterday it was that slew of Bath salt attacks around the country now this.”

  “Sounds more like a horror movie than reality.” Jared commented glancing back up at the TV the reality on the screen refused to go away.

  As Jared watched the view switched to an anchor room where an artificially cute anchorwoman with a million dollar plastic smile sat looking into the camera trying to appear confident and poised. She managed neither; instead, she exuded tension and fear. You could see it in the set of her shoulders, the way she sat, and the way her eyes were constantly moving as if searching for some threat beyond the cameras.

  “No one seems to know what’s really going on at this time.” She said her normally smooth and controlled voice fraying. “The CDC has issued a statement declaring that this is a biological weapons attack using an unknown pathogen.

  The explanations issued by other sources are to be frank, too fantastic to be believed.” She paused for a moment a slight nervous tick at the right corner of her mouth, her smile dimming by a few megawatts. “What is known is that across the world, those infected appear confused and suffer from total memory loss reacting violently to all those around them. The reports so far are clear on one fact, if you are bitten, you will become infected in a short time frame. We are now going live to our correspondent in Memphis, where riots are now in progress.”

  There were gasps around the room as the image of a riot appeared behind the anchorwoman. Memphis was only a few hours down the road from Nashville. Making the event close enough to hammer home how close the danger was. No one as yet had asked for the channel to be changed to one of the local channels. They were all too caught up by the news rolling past their eyes to watch any other channel.

  The reporter in Memphis was a thin blond man wearing casual clothing, who looked fearfully into the camera. Beside him stood a panicky looking man in blood-splattered clothes who was constantly looking back over his shoulder at the approaching rioters on the other side of the police lined barricade. “I’m here in Memphis where the Rioters have rolled over multiple police barricades and are sweeping through the downtown area. Behind me Memphis PD have set up yet another barricade and have brought in riot police, to stop the advance of the infected. Beside me is CJ, who barely escaped a city bus that the rioters got aboard.”

  Behind the reporter Jared could hear authoritative shouts and then saw tear gas blooms among the advancing rioters. He could picture what it was like in that smoky haze all too well from his NBC training in the Army

  But the effects he remembered didn’t seem to be in evidence, no one in that crowd was gagging, or falling away. He couldn’t even see a single shadowy form in that haze wipe at their eyes. The Rioters just get coming on walking slowly through the chemical haze showing no ill effects.

  He stifled a shudder at the sight and noted that there was very little noise from the huge shambling throng. They staggered and stumbled forward, Arms outstretched as they headed towards the riot police at the barricade.

  There was something unnatural about that single-mindedness that kept them rolling forward, but Jared wasn’t yet ready to face what exactly it reminded him of. Despite that the whole scene gave him a case of the shudders.

  “CJ what exactly happened?” the reporter asked as more shouts erupted behind him.

  “Those freaks were biting people, tearing chunks out of them. Dude, they were eating them. Blood was everywhere. Well, I got the emergency window open and managed to get a couple of kids out and then had to climb out myself. I don’t know what happened to those kids, when I hit the ground they were gone, and those things were everywhere. I barely got away.” CJ’s words were rushed, he kept darting a look back at the barricade. It was obvious to all those watching the man was terrified the rioters would get past the police line behind him and was ready to make a run for it before that could happen.

  “Things? Don’t you mean the infected” the reporter said, looking nervously over his shoulder as the shouts intensified, the beating of batons on shields could be heard as the Riot police advanced.

  “Things dude, they were dead and walking. One dude had his face half ripped off and was tearing into this fat lady like she was a Christmas turkey.” CJ said, his voice almost breaking with Fear.

  “This reporter thinks that…..” Jared never found out what the reporter thought as screams erupted behind the man. The Camera started panning to the barricades, everyone watching could see CJ running for his life, not willing to wait and see if the Barricade was holding. “Good luck guy” Jared said softly to the fleeing CJ. Maybe I should have stayed home today. He thought as he pulled out his phone and turned it on. He always shut it off when he was at the Gym.

  No messages he noted when the phone finally booted up which didn’t bode well, at least one of his friends should have tried to get hold of him to let him know what was going on. As he watched the news unfold he called Steve only to hear the message all circuits were busy.

  “Jesus,” someone near Jared muttered.

  “I got to get my family,” another man said, nervous sweat beading his forehead. Without another look at the TV he headed for the locker room to get his keys. Others rushed away from the TVs to retrieve car keys and get home. The ones that remained were almost spellbound by the news footage.

  Jared stood rooted with the others watching as the rioters, all pale and bloody and moving clumsily overwhelmed the riot police. Two or three of the infected would latch on and drag a cop to the ground. Blood was spraying into the air. The News crew caught the screams of fear and pain and transmitted them to the world.

  The camera zoomed in centering on the face of one rioter, there was a collective gasp from the men and women watching at the gym as they saw the infected man’s lips had been torn off at some point, an eye hung down his cheek and his shirt was covered in blood. “That shit ain't human.” Bill, one of the personal trainers said before turning and running to scoop up his Gym bag and rush towards the front door, others followed him out.

  On the TV Gun fire erupted along the barricade as the regular officers moved up. The advancing line of rioters stumbled some even fell, but all of them kept coming. Here and there, a bullet struck a head and that person would tumble to the ground and not rise again.

  “Holy crap” Jared didn’t know who the slightly overweight guy was that had spoken, he had just started at the Gym. “I’m gonna head to the house” the man said, bolting for the locker room.

  The Anchorwoman was back and stating for the record that the dead were not rising, that a biological agent has been deployed and for people to stay calm and indoors with their doors locked. “The president will shortly address the nation regarding this crisis, please stay tuned for updates as they arrive at our desk.” The fact that the official story from yesterday had been something completely different wasn’t mentioned.

  They don’t know whats going on, Jared thought. He dialed his brother’s number and received the same message as before. I hope they are back in country, Jared thought as he tapped out a quick text message to his brother and hit send Then cursed as he saw the unable to send message appear.

  Okay stay frosty, Steve and the others will show up at the house if they are all right. You just need to get out of the city and home. Eric is safer with the Army than I am here, he told himself trying to convince himself that his little brother would be okay.

  First things first, if everyone is okay then they will show up at the house, Jared told himself. Who would have thought that all those Bull sessions about what to do if things went Tango Uniform would end up being useful. He would have laughed except for once the humor that kept soldiers sane had deserted him.

  “I think it might be smart to get on home” Jared said turning to head to the locker room. Jill placed a hand on his arm to stop him and held up her phone to show him a local newscast. Even now her touch was electric, he noted as he saw the list of locations scrolling across the right hand side of the screen as a voice read off the locations
He leaned down to hear it better.

  “Local police are asking that everyone that doesn’t need to be on the road to please stay in your homes. All local businesses are asked to start letting employee’s go home in an orderly manner so as not to jam the roads. If there are infected in your area, we ask that you shelter in place till authorities can deal with the situation.” Jared shook his head in disbelief as the reporter droned on with the usual don’t panic, you will be saved etc. etc. At the best of times there were not enough officers to deal with a city-wide situation. And if this was happening in Major cities, he thought, it was probably occurring in smaller cities and towns as well so even calling up the guard and the entire army wouldn’t be able to do much more than slow it down in some areas.

  He didn’t buy a bit of the official story line, years of military experience and being well read told him there was no way a biological agent could have been deployed simultaneously around the globe like that or infect so many so fast without some kind of incubation period. Which would have resulted in sporadic outbreaks over a period of days or weeks, not all at once across the globe.