The Clock Runs Down: Half Past the Apocalypse

by Joe Kelly

  Rob and Ori watched Jared cross to the Cabin, and then looked at each other. “I guess I might go wake Beth up” Ori said with a grin. “and then spend an hour at least, playing explorer”

  Jared climbed up the steps to cabin three, and stepped inside. What I need is a damned DI, he thought noting the mess as he passed thru to the stairs. Steves door was closed, no surprise there. He knocked, then knocked again. “who is it” Bridget called out.

  “your friendly neighborhood zombie hunter.” Jared called out.

  “come in Jared” She replied, he heard Steve say something, but it was to low to make out.

  He stepped inside, and saw the place was a wreck, dirty clothes scattered everywhere. Bridget looked embarrassed, but she was still bed ridden for the most part. Steve sat on the bed with his back propped on the headboard wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, that hid little at this point. “morning Jared”

  “morning Steve, Morning Bridget” Jared said as he looked around again. “ Ill get to the point, you need to get dressed and get down there and help Rob get your camper shell mounted and covered. After that if you want it wired and insulated you’ll have to do it yourself”

  Steve eyed him for a moment. “was he complaining or something” he asked, with a touch of irritation.

  “Not a bit, I told him not to” Jared replied levelly. If Steve wanted to argue he was going to know it was Jared he needed to fight with not Rob.

  “why?” Steve asked surprised.

  “the man has been working his ass off for everyone in the camp, take a good look at him Steve, he is about to drop. Warren helps him as much as possible and looks about as bad. Ori’s been pulling more watches than any else and looks tired as shit and has been spending most of his off watch time helping Rob and you know we cant afford to lose Ori to exhaustion. He is our best shot, and I damn sure don’t want him on a Run when he can barely focus and gets his ass bit off, or gets one of us bitten.” Jared replied.

  Steve looked down for a moment frowning. “I’m not jumping your ass, I’m just telling you because Rob didn’t want you climbing all over him when I’m the one that told him not to do the wiring and stuff.” Jared said then fell silent as Steve swung his legs off the bed. Steve sat there on the edge of the bed thinking for a moment, from the look on his face he wasn’t happy with what ever answer he had found.

  “your right man.” Steve said as he reached for his pants. “I’m sorry, I just..” his voice trailed off as he looked at Bridget. Jared understood completely, Steve had lost a world and almost lost the woman he loved. He had wanted to spend as much time with her as he could. We all do, Jared thought but if we are going to keep surviving then we have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get it in gear.

  “you’re like a brother to me Steve, Hell you all are a brothers to me. Did you know Ori jumped on Henry a couple of days ago because he was flirting with Beth.” Jared said. Frowning again Steve nodded slowly.

  “I heard about it. didn’t sound like Ori at all to be honest” Steve replied.

  “exactly my point, he is stretched thin. We all are buddy. I had hoped that the party would help, and it has some but if Ori has gotten that short tempered we should do something, So Im giving him a few days off. In fact we need to sit down and work out an honest to god work schedule, Might make every one feel better with some kind of normalcy and stability.” Steve pulled on his pants, then leaned over to kiss Bridget before finishing getting dressed.

  “might as well add in some PT, and gym time. I think we could all use it” Steve said as he looked around his room as if seeing it for the first time. “and maybe schedule a GI party too.”

  “we can all get together this evening and discuss the whole thing. I’m not going to play little lord fauntleroy, at least not yet” Jared said as he smiled at Bridget. “so when are you getting pregnant.”

  “Don’t you start on me” she said. “I’m still injured.” Jared laughed almost normally.

  Chapter 16

  Logan Mills, was a twenty two year old six-foot, Italian/greek, third generation American. According to his mother he had gotten all the good genes from both sides. The darker skin, classic good looks and the women had seemed to agree with his mother. He had been a sales person at a big electronics box store. Box store, what a stupid thing to call them. One of the problems with the old world he thought as he ran a hand over his close cropped black hair. No soul to anything. Box store, product. Soulless meaningless names and titles, that some dim wit came up with to distance themselves from the lack of quality, and the total disregard of customers.

  Well he didn’t miss it, not that he liked flesh eating zombies, or the fact so many had died. But maybe just maybe, when this was over. People would stop with the meaning less crap and get down to being human again. And maybe you’re to much a dreamer he thought. instead of a dream College had turned out to be a Nightmare when zombies had eaten his soccer team, the professors and quite a bit of sorority row.

  If anyone had told him a year ago he would be playing mad max, with sorority girls, some nerds, a couple of football players, and a guy in a wheelchair he would have laughed but here he was and wasn’t it just a load of fun.

  He glanced at the girl who rode beside him, four months ago he would have been hitting on her something fierce. Leggy, tan, blonde, heart shaped face, and lips made for . kissing he thought, stay away from thinking about other things he told himself.

  “how much longer?” she asked sounding more like a whiney kid than an adult. Like this is spring break and they were just going to stop at for dinner and a hotel room along the interstate.

  “don’t know” he said as he slowed for a curve. Driving thru the smokies, you could almost imagine that the world was normal. Traffic had never been heavy on this road. At least not in the years he had come up here to camp, hike and kayak. “maybe another hour or two” he added. “I know this old lodge, its pretty big, and wasn’t real popular with mainstream folks so its possible no one was there when, when the zombies showed”

  “they aren’t zombies” she said, she refused to believe no matter what she had seen. “ they are just sick” he shook his head, he really needed to get Joan to ride next to him. She was cute and smarter than a brick unlike Stephanie, Or maybe ride with Tatiana, he loved the name, loved her Russian accent and she had a smoking hot bod on her. and she was smart, she had been working her way to a masters degree when the world ended. He only hoped that when they reached their destination it wouldn’t be a waste of time or get them all killed.

  A couple of weeks ago they had begun to hear radio transmissions from somewhere. It had been the first proof they’d had that they were not alone and it had made a hell of difference in the group. four of the former students had already committed suicide, and he really believed those radio messages had kept two people for sure and probably others from doing the same thing.

  After the first few broadcasts, they had gotten the name of the town. Gary had talked to Logan, Chase, and Michael about heading out this way, certain that once they got close to the town he could reply.

  The military gear in the National Guard command truck they had picked up at an old checkpoint didn’t have the power to transmit that far, which meant, he had said, that wh ever was broadcasting had a base unit with a lot of power behind it. they were using a HAM unit, whatever that was, because they were transmitting in the HAM bands, Gary had explained. Either way, it gave them an excuse to get the hell out of the city.

  By Logan’s estimations, they should be close to Bergstown day after tomorrow, if everything went well. Hopefully Gary would be able to get those folks on the line before they rolled into the town. Last thing he wanted was to be in a zombie infested town in the dark, with no idea where to go, and what was safe.

  ♦ ♦ ♦

  “What do you think” Steve asked Jared as they stood on the firing step of the wall and watched the dark plumes of smoke rising from the direction of town.

  “Its on
fire” Jared replied, with no real humor in the comment. “I guess we need to go check it out” he said finally.

  “I’d like to make a suggestion” Steve said.

  “and that would be.” Jared asked cautiously,

  “We use the ultralight. Other than crashing, it’s the safest way to go into town and look around. And it doesn’t use much fuel. We both know that little bastard Seth has been setting booby traps every where. We don’t want to risk losing another life or a truck to one at this point” Steve suggested.

  Jared looked dubious at the suggestion. “Look I know Ronny can fly the damn thing okay. So do you. He was working on getting his pilots license” Steve insisted.

  “for six years he was working on it. that doesn’t inspire me with confidence” Jared came back with.

  “Come on Jared, just because you don’t like to fly, don’t slam him. He was taking classes when he had the time and the money.”

  Jared nodded, “You’re right, I don’t like to fly, and for good reason. You’re also right that Ronny can probably fly it.” he admitted. “tell him to get it loaded up in your truck, we can haul it down to the main road and take off from there”

  “Plenty of room here” Steve replied as he looked around the camp.

  “I don’t know that, and neither does Ronny. So lets get on the road and see how long a stretch we will need. Then we will know for a fact If we can fit a runway into the camp …” Jared said then stopped and groaned. “ more land we could use for crops going up in smoke. We really need a bigger place” Steve totally agreed, he had been one of the only ones willing to comment on occasion that they really needed to consider possibly finding a new place.

  An hour later Jared was strapping into the tiny cockpit. Fighting down the queasy, sinking feeling in his gut. Its not going to crash he told himself. Not that he believed himself. In fact when it came to flying he had it on good authority he lied to himself.

  Ronny was humming happily as he climbed into the front seat and looked over the instruments. Of which there were not enough in Jared's opinion and that lack of instrumentation did nothing to inspire confidence in Jared.

  Steve, Jason, Rob and Pappy were playing guard outside, keeping a watch for zombies. they would wait till the ultralight returned or crashed, before leaving for camp. “Radio test” Ronnie said keying his unit. “ Roger, hearing you loud and clear.” Warren said from the Radio at camp.

  “ okay assuming the wings don’t fall off we are good to go” Ronny said, flashing a grin back at Jared who was decidedly pale.

  “I will shoot you in the ass if you crack another joke like that” Jared said thru gritted teeth, knowing that Ronny loved seeing him scared shitless.

  “Amazing that you will stand there calm as hell with people shooting at you, or zombies trying to eat you. But a little bitty aircraft makes you shit your drawers.” Ronny said with a grin.

  “that’s because if I get shot I won’t be falling ten thousand feet and becoming a stain on the ground.” Jared replied.

  “Well we won’t be at ten thousand feet unless you really want to” Ronny said as he touched a button and the engine roared to life. “we have contact. Ladies and gentleman, please make sure your seat backs and trays are in the upright position and that your flight attendants are vertical. We will be cruising at an altitude of two hundred feet today at a speed of a hundred miles an hour.”

  “shut up and get us airborne or turn it off and let me out” Jared said, he had barely finished speaking when he was pushed back into the seat as Ronny started accelerating.

  “sorry we cant let our passengers disembark once the gate has been closed. Hang on and cross every thing you have for luck” Ronny announced with a smile that Jared couldn’t see from behind.

  Jared held on tightly, trying not to remember a day when a black hawk he had been on had been shot down. The pilot had managed to get into auto rotation, but they were still two thousand feet up with no engine, fuel spilling out and oil everywhere.

  Jared had never gotten over that moment. Even though he had flown many times after, and always with a change of shorts and gut wrenching fear. But once he had reentered the civilian world he had avoided aircraft. Till now, assuming you can call this thing an aircraft. Aircraft my happy butt this is a leaped up lawn chair with a lawn mower motor.

  The motor sounded like an enraged mosquito as the moved down the road picking up speed. Its wings suddenly going taut as they caught the air at last, Ronny pulled the stick back and increased power. suddenly the rough ride stopped as the little aircraft left the ground. Jared looked out the open side of the cockpit and watching as they cleared the tree tops. “I wont take us much higher if that’s okay with you.” Ronny said.

  “doesn’t matter at this point, fall a hundred or a thousand. The sudden stop will still kill us.” Jared replied

  Ronny grinned as he leveled off and then did a slow bank and aimed at the smoke in the distance. “thank you for flying apocalypse air, I hope you enjoy your flight thru hell. The no smoking sign is now off. “

  “bite me” Jared muttered, his fingers stroking the pistol grip of his rifle longingly. Then he shook the thought away, shooting the smart ass pilot while airborne was counter productive to staying aloft.

  They flew slowly over the town looking in disbelief. There were huge knots of undead wandering the streets but nothing like they had seen in the days leading up to the disaster and Marks death. Several homes were on fire, and others around them were smoldering. the strip center with the tractor supply was almost a gutted ruin. That fire had spread into the woods and homes behind it and were still burning steadily. The densest smoke was rising from the Fuel storage yard.

  “that son of a … “ Jared chopped the comment off no real point in finishing it.

  “he set the town on fire” Ronny said in disbelief, he banked the craft to the left and flew along 52 towards the hospital. Smoke was rising from the hospital, mostly from the new ER section. The older section looked to be intact. But the pharmacy they had planned on hitting further down the road was in flames.

  “swing around and take us over Walmart” Jared said already sure of what they would find.

  They flew low over town on approach to walmart. It looked like half the town had burned or was burning. “there it is” Ronny called out alter his course slightly. Smoke billowed out of the open doors and the now broken skylights. Thank god we have already cleared a lot of stuff out of the place, Jared thought as they flew over the parking lot, zombies wandered around, and the few cars that had been parked there were gone. Jared suspected they were inside the burning building. The Walgreens across the street from it was intact, but the Long John Silvers was burning. “this isn’t good is it” Ronny asked Rhetorically.

  “Not in the least buddy” Jared said levelly. He sounded calm but any one that saw his white knuckled grip on the combing would know instantly he hated being in the air.

  “look at the bright side, there’s no zombie clowns flying around up here” Ronny said as he banked again, wanting to get a look on the other side of town by the Co op.

  One and half later they were landing, roughly but they landed and the ultralight was still intact. During their flight they had broadcasted some of the disaster back to the others. Steve ran up and helped Jared out of the ultralight, Jared looked happy as hell to be on the ground again. If the situation hadn’t been so bad he would have laughed at the look on his tough friends face. “He burned out almost everything we could have used” Jared said furious. “ I should have found a way to get into that damn sheriffs office and killed him then” Jared said angrily.

  “Spilled milk Buddy, we had wounded and one badly abused girl to get back to camp and there were to many undead” Steve replied.

  “I bet he is hiding around the courthouse somewhere” Jared said the muscles in his jaw jumping.

  “We can’t waste the time to hunt him down Jared. Not yet.” Steve said calmly. Of course he could be calm he hadn’t
been flying around in a rickety contraption. Jared thought. “we are going to have to head to Byrdstown or Clarkrange to get fuel now, and possibly Cookeville for the stuff we need.” Steve said. Jared nodded in agreement, that was going to be a long haul with a lot of danger. Clark range was the closest place to the south. But it didn’t have much to offer other than a two stores and two gas stations.

  Regardless they would have to raid the place now. Assuming Seth didn’t plant a few IEDs on the by pass that they would have to drive on to get there “there’s Monticello to the north in Kentucky, and Onieda to north east. We don’t have to go thru town to get to either of those.” Jared said thoughtfully. Onieda was actually the closest to the camp if you just looked at just miles. But the nearest road that would take them there cut through the park and was narrow and winding, passing through the south fork river bottom and around multiple ridges. In the best of times it took almost as much time to reach Onieda as it did to reach Crossville.