The Clock Runs Down: Half Past the Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  The bus came to a stop, the doors folding back. Jill leaped out of the bus a pistol in each hand covering Jared's back as he turned and beat on the door again. I have to hope she knows how to shoot, he thought. This time through the glass he saw someone move in the shadow filled hallway.

  . Don’t let it be a zombie he thought as he shot out the narrow window next to the door and reached in and pushed the release bar. “if there’s any one alive in here, this is your rescue call. “ Jared opened the door and bellowed into the dark hallways.

  “Who are you?” a girls voice asked. Jared relaxed slightly as he finally saw the little girl who stood in the shadows clearly.

  “the Calvary, are there any zombies inside with you.” He asked.

  “No” The girl said her hands clutched together as she stared wide eyed at him.

  “what about other people, any other kids or adults” Jared asked.

  “yes” She replied.

  “Get your friends and come to the front door” Jared said, about ready to walk in and knock them all unconscious.

  “Ms. Harper is sick and laying down and we aren’t supposed to talk to strangers” the girl said. Oh hell he thought but kept his frustration from showing as he walked down the hall toward her.

  “We got a slight problem here. but I am dealing with it” Jared said over the radio.

  “We have a problem too, seems the sounds of shooting and breaking glass was more interesting to the walking pus bags behind us. Most of them are heading back your way.” Ronny responded.

  “Oh that’s just great and I blew out a window. So it’s either get them out now or leave them to die.” Jared said

  “Get er done” Mark said. Jared could almost see the wild grin on the mans face.

  “Look is Ms. Harper awake” Jared asked the girl

  “no” she said again

  “Can I see her.” Jared asked

  “No” the girl replied, you could tell from her voice she was terrified.

  Son of a bitc…. He chopped the thought off. But before he could say anything else another voice came from down the right hand hallway.

  “Sally get in here. Mister, I got a gun and I can use it. Walk to the intersection and keep your hands were I can see them.” A teen age male said. He sounded shaky and his voice rose to high and broke

  “Look we don’t have a lot of time. I’m here to get you out, all of you.” Jared said as he looked back through the front doors to make sure they were still clear.

  Jared stopped in the intersection. Peering down the shadow filled hallway, he saw a boy maybe 14 with a pistol pointed at him. The boys narrow face was pinched with fear. Jared center slung his weapon and knelt on one knee Ignoring the sudden fusillade of gunfire from outside.

  “Come on Kid, let’s go” Jared said softly. “I’m really here to save you.” The boy was shaking, and then finally nodded in relief, as tears started sliding down his cheeks, Jared could almost see the hope that flared in his eyes.

  “Sally you and Jenny get the kids together and get them into the hallway. I’ll go get the others. “the boy said turning his head to look into the doorway behind him, where Sally and the others sheltered.

  “How many do you have with you” Jared asked the shaken young teen,

  “twenty five” the boy answered then ran down the hall and vanished around a corner.

  In moments Sally, a tiny seven year old blond girl, led the other children into the hall, they held hands and were obviously badly scared, flinching every time a weapon fired outside. Jared felt his heart go out to them. Then forced the emotion away. Now was not the time.

  “I’d hurry it up Jared” Jills voice cracked out of the radio. “We are getting more and more showing up”

  “Roger that hold em if you can. If not leave me” Jared replied.

  “We aren’t leaving you” Steve said hotly.

  “To hell you aren’t. Someone has to come back and get me when they surround the place. Won't do much good to have all the calvary inside” Jared replied.

  “Boss those things are everywhere, coming out of the woodwork” Rob said suddenly breaking in. He and warren were positioned down the road, where they were supposed to keep the escape route open.

  “You have maybe five minutes Jared, before a few hundred hungry, really pissed off, mostly dead folks get in the parking lot.” Steve said. “So speed it up”

  Jared suddenly felt a cold chill as what the girl, sally, had said finally registered with him. Ms. Harper was sick. Oh shit, he thought as he rose and strode towards the children. “I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to check on Ms. Harper” Jared said as the kids shrank back from him. “You go wait at the intersection for me.” He said as he stepped past them into the classroom.

  Ms. Harper, a rather attractive brown haired woman lay on some nap mats. She seemed to be asleep. “ What are you doing?” The boy with the pistol asked from the doorway.

  “Just checking on your teacher.” Jared said smoothly

  “Don’t hurt her” the boy said flatly obviously willing to shoot Jared if he even thought that the teacher who had saved these kids was in danger.

  “If she dies, she will come back as one of them” Jared said gently.

  “she wasn’t bit” the boy protested. Jared didn’t argue the point, there was time for that later.

  “What happened to her?” Jared asked.

  “She fell and hit her head.” The boy said, which at least was more helpful.

  “When did it happen?” Jared asked about tired of having to ask a question for every little thing.

  “Earlier, when a bunch of trucks came thru. Guess it was you guys. She stacked some desks so she could climb and look out the window to wave at you or something, and the desks fell.” The kid said, pointing to the tumbled desks below the high narrow windows.

  Jared felt a bit of relief at that, then knelt and lifted the slender, and very cute in a Sandra Bullock sort of way, woman to his chest. Now would be the time she dies and rips out my throat he told himself.

  “Jared if you and those kids are going to be leaving you need to get on this bus right now” Jill called out. The gunfire outside was almost steady now. “Ronny and the rest are back, but that huge crowd, they led off are just down the road. We can see them now.”

  “Let's go kids’ Jared said, walking from the room carrying Ms. Harper. He headed for the front doors with twenty-five crying and terrified kids trailing in his wake. He stepped outside and passed the teacher to Jill who was in the process of reloading her pistol.

  “I’ve got it Jill, you take her.” Jared said. Jill nodded and carried the woman onto the bus.

  He turned to the children “Get on the bus kids,” he said unslinging his rifle and began picking targets. He felt a flicker of surprise as he noted the number of undead. They were coming from every house, and store in sight. A wave of dead flesh preceding the even larger crowd they had drawn off earlier with the diversion. The gunfire, the damned gunfire had drawn in every zombie in the area.

  “Remember when I said, leaving your house was the best way to avoid large numbers of these things, well, I was wrong” Ori said over the radio.

  “My testicles for a Napalm strike” Jared muttered.

  “I can shoot mister” the Boy said appearing at Jared’s side. “I really can” he insisted desperate to be of some use. “Been shooting since I was a kid, and had to shoot the Cafeteria lady when she killed Mr Johnson”

  Jesus Jared thought then nodded towards the Bus.” What’s your name?” Jared asked not needing the distraction not at the moment.

  “Ben” the kid replied, trying not to show his fear.

  “Well, Ben, I need you to get on that bus and be ready to protect the kids. They know and trust you” Jared replied, giving Ben a glance to see if he was buying it. Ben waffled for a second. Brave kid that one Jared thought.

  “I will, I promise” Ben said as he ran to the bus and started helping to get the scared kids on board.
Jared lifted his rifle and began servicing targets again.

  “Holy shit” Steve said suddenly over the radio. “Maintenance shack, left side. Some guy was hiding in there, the idiot is trying to make the bus.”

  Jared cursed, whoever that guy was he was on the wrong side, there were at least thirty zombies that way. “I’ll cover him” Steve said.

  “No, that uncovers the road. We can't risk it. I will handle it” Jared said as he ran to the front of the bus and began to lay down fire. Jill, thank god had the kids still waiting to get on the bus turned away from the scene. The man tried to go wide around the group of zombies between him and safety. Jared ran dry and ejected the spent magazine and slapped in another. He knew it was too little too late, but he was going to try no matter the outcome. The Man, whoever he was, had almost gotten free. But his luck ran out, he stumbled and went to one knee, that one second cost him his life.

  Jared dropped the first zombie, then the second. But four more managed to close the distance and piled onto the screaming man. Jared stood there for a heartbeat, looking into the pleading eyes of the poor bastard and then put a bullet into the man’s head, hoping that someone would do the same thing for him if it came to it.

  He continued shooting down the zombies, thinning the horde and buying time and space for the last of the kids to get on board the bus. But there were more undead and like the tide the horde swept closer and closer.

  If this took much longer there would be way too many on the road to get thru easily. The trucks were jacked for off roading, so he wasn’t too worried about Centering out. But the bus, it would never make it thru a huge crowd of those things.

  Luckily, the largest concentrations of zombies were coming from the direction opposite the one the group would be going.

  “Jared, the kids are loaded. We need to haul butt” Jill shouted from the bus.

  “Now would be a good time, to get the hell out of dodge Hoss” Ronny said over the radio. Jared looked and saw that all the kids were on the bus and Jill was sitting with the teacher. No doubt ready to put a bullet in her the second she opened milk white-eyes.

  “Mounting up now” Jared replied as he ran to Steve’s truck and climbed in. Steve popped off a few more rounds, then leaped into the driver's seat and in seconds they were in motion. Jared fell back into the seat and breathed a sigh of relief. “I really hope not to do that again any time soon” he said.

  They stopped only long enough for Jared to get back behind the wheel of his own truck, Sharon gladly returning to Marks truck. Two minutes later they were leaving the Town of Livingston and its undead to their own devices.

  CHAPTER 9

  From Livingston they had to switch roads repeatedly driving up into Kentucky then Driving back into Tennessee using the roads that went thru the National forest.

  Before the Zombies, this area had been sparsely populated, back then you would see the occasional driver, or farmer running his tractor thru fields. But not today, today there wasn’t a soul in sight the road was empty for as far as he could see except for the occasional abandoned vehicle. They stopped only once to strip an ambulance they found on the side of the road, its doors open and blood all over the back. They debated on taking it with them, but in the end decided against it.

  By five they turned down the narrow, rutted path that served as a road to the camp, trees scrapping the sides of the vehicles. Bridget was sweating by the time they reached the clearing where the cabins sat. She had almost gotten stuck twice, but in the end, Steve had come up from behind, locked into four low and pushed the bus out of the rut that wanted to keep it. Scrapped and battered the bus finally rolled into the camp, a bit worse for the wear but serviceable.

  As Jared slid from his truck Ori and Steve ran for the tree line carrying duffle bags containing the perimeter alarm systems. the loud shriek each unit emitted when the trip wire was sprung would wake the dead. Well, wake Jared and the others up, at any rate. The dead didn’t seem to be interested in sleeping anymore.

  The bus came to a stop beside Jared its door folded back with a hiss. “How’s the teacher,” he asked Bridget who was resting her forehead on the steering wheel.

  “Awake, Jill used smelling salts on her. So maybe she isn’t going to die” Bridget replied lifting her head to look at Jared. She looked exhausted he thought, how much more can we take.

  Jared nodded. “Let's park that thing by the main Cabin. Get the kids ready while we clear the building,” he said.

  The Camp, a gift to himself after getting out of the Army, consisted of three cabins and a barn in a clearing on a finger shaped ridge with steep almost vertical walls. Sunlight shone on the rooftop solar panels that Jared had installed last year. Solar was only one of the advantages of the camp, a tap from a nearby natural gas well fed the stove and heating system and water was supplied by a natural spring using either an electrical pump or an old fashioned hand pump.

  When he had first purchased the place there had only been the one two story cabin, after two years it had seemed cramped when everyone was there, so Steve and the others had pitched in and helped build the other two cabins both of them two story to match the original. The Barn was over a hundred years old well maintained and held a small workshop. They had even spent a month pouring a cement floor and adding on the workshop to the side of the Barn and there had been plans to install a lift to make working on the trucks easier.

  He gazed at the main cabin for a moment remembering some of the trips they had taken up here. Don’t relax now your still not safe, Jared told himself getting his mind back in the game. “Ronny, I want you Mark and Chris to clear cabin two, Jill and Rob will help me with the main cabin. Everyone else stay with the vehicles and be ready to get out of here if a horde of those things shows up.”

  Jared followed by Rob and Jill walked slowly to the porch of the main cabin and found it locked. Which was a good sign, he thought, if no one had slipped thru the windows and died inside. With that thought in mind he walked slowly around the cabin peering into the few windows and saw nothing. Even the canoes they had left last trip were still chained in place on the rack behind the cabin.

  Returning to the porch he unlocked the door with his key and stepped into the large living room and looked around. It didn’t look as if anyone else had been inside since they had last been here in late May.

  Jill took a moment to look around the main room, a stone fireplace dominated the open floor plan, the furniture was a bit out of date but tasteful. Pictures mostly photos of landscapes hung on the chinked log walls. A rack on one wall held fishing poles and a glass-fronted cabinet beside it held two rifles. The kitchen was out of date but she wasn’t going to complain about a gas-fired stove. A short hallway beside the staircase led to the back of the cabin,

  “it’s not much.” Jared said as he headed for the bathroom door set into the side of the staircase. The bathroom door stood open, as did one of the two-bedroom doors downstairs. He knocked on the closed door and listened but there was only silence. He refused to assume that the place was empty. That’s when he would get bit in the ass and have to drag a lock jawed zombie around till he died. Jared opened the door slowly and breathed slightly easier finding the room was empty.

  He worked his way upstairs and threw open the first bedroom door and then checked the closet. Then it was the last door’s turn. He threw the door open and stepped back rapidly as a figure lunged forward its crooked hands grasping at him.

  Before Rob or Jill could do a thing, Jared snapped off a shot that missed. Swearing he pivoted on his left heel and smashed his rifle butt into the zombie’s head. Bones shattered under the blow and the body of Kelly Boyle the man who was supposed to maintain the cabins when Jared wasn’t here, dropped to the floor and didn’t move again.

  Jared heard boots pounding up the stairs and Ronny was shouting questions. “It's all clear now,” Jared called out as he knelt and rolled the corpse over. There were still strips of tape and some gauze hanging from the Boyd’s shou
lder that had once covered the gaping bite wound. “Be careful there might be more around here,” he said unnecessarily.

  They found Boyd’s truck in the barn where he had parked it. There was blood on the seat. Thankfully Boyd had been the only zombie on the property. He must have been bitten in town and drove up here to hide. Jared decided, shaking his head. That would suck to die alone, not even knowing if you were the last person left on the planet.

  The kids sat huddled together in the living room area some crying softly while their Ms. Harper, Beth as she had asked the group to call her, comforted them.

  Beth still unsteady sat with them telling them stories trying to calm them. She kept glancing up at the men and women who had saved her and the children. Jared again felt anger at the story she had shared with Jill on the ride up here. She saw him watching and gave him a shaky smile.

  He gave her a tight smile in return but the anger he felt refused to go away. Seeing the look on Jared’s face, Ori knew exactly what his best friend was thinking about.