The Clock Runs Down_The Servant

by Joe Kelly

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  The drive up to the Maintenance yard took longer that it might usually have due to snow and the need to keep a lookout for outsiders. Skeletal limbed, snow shrouded trees, loomed over the roadway. Rivulets of ice hung like stalactites from rocky outcroppings. Here and there snow slid from branches of the trees landing with an audible thump, to pile on the ground around the trunks

  Lloyd sat in the passenger seat of Jared’s van as they crept up the snow-covered roadway. Behind them, Steve’s six-wheeled Ram behemoth clanked along on snow chains. The snow was falling heavier now, fat flakes that were piling up into what promised to become a record snowfall. Thankfully, Jared could still see but if this storm intensified, visibility was going to get worse. Up head through the white curtain of snow, Lloyd spotted the brown sign that announced the driveway to the yard he pointed it out to Jared who slowed then came to a stop.

  Jared pulled on a toboggan cap then scanned the area out the window for zombies but saw nothing. Satisfied he opened the door and stepped out into the blowing snow. Together he and Lloyd walked the road to the Maintenance yard gates looking for tracks. They didn’t find anything, but that proved nothing. The snow that had fallen over the last couple of days could have completely filled any tracks the raiders may have left.

  Reaching the gates, they found them standing open, the chain that had kept them closed had been cut, it dangled from the chain link gate, its links slowly growing ice. It should have been frozen solid, Jared thought as he looked closer and saw the exposed metal on the cut was still bright, not that he needed to see that to know someone had recently cut the lock off the gate.

  “all right folks, come on down” Jared transmitted, as he moved into the yard, his weapon at High ready just in case something or someone was lurking inside.

  Jared stayed near the gate looking over the maintenance yard, as the vehicles rumbled down the drive towards him. The place looked deserted, like something out of a movie as wind driven snow swirled up and around the buildings and across the yard before falling softly to the ground waiting for the next gust of wind to send them flying once more.

  “The thing” He muttered.

  “what?” Lloyd asked puzzled by the out of nowhere comment.

  “it reminds me of that movie, ‘the Thing’ with Kurt Russel.”

  “hell, of thing to bring up, at a time like this” Lloyd said, trying to still his own nerves.

  A large metal vehicle barn sat towards the back of the maintenance yard, one of its doors partially open. Another smaller building sat to its right. Two large fuel tanks on a stand were placed between the two buildings. There were four park trucks, two of them off road capable. A snowplow, two bull dozers, three dump trucks, a backhoe, and a grader. To the north side of the yard, building materials were stacked inside an open-air building.

  “Fuel tanks” Lloyd said almost face palming himself as he spotted the two large tanks on metal stands beside the Vehicle Barn. Seeing the size of the tanks Jared guessed they were about four thousand-gallon tanks, hopefully one of them was full, it depended on when they were last filled, and how much fuel the park used on a daily basis.

  “Well I guess we know one of the things they are going to want from here” Jared said, as the van parked nearby, then Steve's truck parked beside it. The four snow mobiles, veered away from the gate and headed back to the road, to scout further down, just in case the raiders had left some one there to watch. “as soon as we clear the place, I’ll have someone check the tanks to see how much fuel is in them.”

  “Well according to Graham three trucks were seen leaving the area. And nothing going in since he left this morning. So, they can’t have taken a lot of fuel. We need to post some guards up here” Lloyd said, as he considered options.

  They moved slowly, checking the yard. Jared with Lloyd and Team one, made their way to the open air shelter where lumber was stored. The snow crunching with every step, it was hard to see between the falling snow and the snow the wind set to swirling around the yard.

  Jared pulled his shemagh up and around his face and neck, to keep the cold cutting wind from his skin. Intently peering through the snow hoping to see any threat before it saw him. Moving around a pallet with fifty-gallon drums stacked on it, he moved along a pile of four inch diameter twenty foot long pipes.

  Nothing moved but the wind and the snow, and under the eaves of the building was gloom. He stepped out past the pile of pipes only to be hit by a gust of wind and snow. He lifted his rifle as he approached the lumber storage area, anything could be between the racks of lumber.

  As another gust of windblown snow blinded him, something grasped his ankle, with a shout he tore his leg free and leaped back. Through the blowing snow he saw a zombie rise from the snow that had covered it. The flesh had been torn from the skull in chunks, leaving patches of hair and flesh still attached.

  Taking him by surprise it lunged upright, hands grasping for his rifle, “you can have it,” Jared snarled as he yanked his head back away from the snapping teeth, drawing his Khurkri as he spun to the left. A patch of ice sent him sliding. More zombies were rising from the snow now, ten in all.

  Jared dropped to one knee and used one hand to control then stop his slide, the zombie that had attacked him dropped the rifle and lunged for him again. Jared launched himself up and forward, hitting the ground and rolling on his shoulder to the balls of his feet behind the zombie that slipped and fell on the patch of ice under the snow. A gunshot rang out, then other, Lloyd had his .357 in action now, and the bark of the AR that Logan carried joined it on the second shot.

  Jared heard all of it, but his mind was on the zombie in front of him. He darted forward, leaping up, when he came down he slammed a foot down behind the things knee, bone shattered, crippled check, He thought as he dodged another zombie that tried to grasp his arm. Jared slammed his forearm into its mouth, the armored van braces that Jill had made for him shattered teeth. A snap kick and he broke its lower leg, he dodged its outstretched arms as it started to topple then putting every bit of power he could muster he brought the Khurkri down on its skull, bone broke with a crunch, It was dead, for good this time, he thought as he turned quickly to see the zombie he had crippled crawling towards him. He took a step forward and kicked hard. The steel toed boot struck the thing in the mouth shattering teeth and snapping its head back. A downward strike of the weapon in his hand shattered bone and sent a spray of black tar looking ichor into the snow.

  He crouched and turned in a circle searching for another threat only to see that all of the undead were down. “now that was exciting.” Lloyd commented dryly as he reloaded his weapon.

  Why had they been laying there, Jared wondered, other than cripples he had never seen a zombie that could walk, laying down. Not once and why the hell don’t they freeze. There were no answers and probably never would be, but again he had the sneaking suspicion that the undead had been waiting to ambush them, just like at the Walmart in Bergstown.

  “Let’s get this over with, those gun shots might have attracted attention.” Jared said, moving towards the stacks of lumber.”

  Once the yard was secured, the teams converged on the Vehicle barn, Lloyd watched, quietly impressed as Jared and his people assembled at the door the barn, stacked is what they called it. At a signal one of Jared’s people opened the door and the team flowed into the building, weapons up and ready. He waited outside with the others till the all clear was given, which only took a couple of moments.

  It was dim inside, lit only by the muted gray light that fell from the fiberglass panels set in the ceiling. Flash light beams probed the interior, revealing that the building was open floored except for an enclosed supervisor’s office in the back-left corner, along the left wall were shelves, work tables and tool boxes. A massive air compressor, paint cabinets and parts lockers. on the right wall a fenced in area held eight foot tall tools lockers along half the wall, chainsaws, axes, winch cables, and other tools used to clear an
d maintain trails hung from begs on the other half.

  Four snowmobiles were lined up along the back wall, and five four wheelers. Next to the ATV’s were five small trailers that could be pulled by the four wheelers, mostly used for light loads, and to carry trash picked up along the trails.

  Down the center of the bay, three trucks were lined up, their hoods open. One looked like someone had been changing its tires. The other two had parts removed from the motors. Rolling tool cabinets sat next to each truck.

  “It’s a gold mine.” Lloyd said awe struck at the haul of supplies and what it could mean for the farm.

  “That’s what I would call it” Jared said looking around at the neat shop. “I think that posting guards here might end up being dangerous and useless in the long run. We couldn’t get up here fast enough to support them if the undead or the raiders showed up in force.”

  “maybe set up an Lp/op up the ridge.” Steve suggested. Then shook his head seeing the problem before Jared could point it out. “but without a base radio and an antenna tower, no signal from our Talkies would reach back to camp”

  Ori looked up “if we hook eight hundred feet of wire to a tethered balloon back at camp and attach a booster…” Ori said then shook his head and grimaced “ never mind forget it.”

  “want me to ride back and get our fuel trucks?” Rob asked.

  “We could use the two water trucks outside. Fill them both with the fuel from the tanks and drain those suckers dry, then the raiders won’t have a real reason to try to occupy the place.” Steve suggested, Jared shook his head.

  “No, it’s a good idea, but the farm could use those water trucks, we could pump water out of the river into the tanks, so they have easy access to water for the cabins and for the crops without a lot of work. Maybe we should ask Graham if they have an empty fuel truck or a lot of barrels. We could top off our fuel tankers too. Assuming you don’t mind” Jared asked looking at Lloyd, who shook his head not really surprised that Jared wasn’t going to just lay claim to all the stuff here. He just wasn’t that type of guy, thank god.

  “Not in the least, but we can use that equipment outside to build defense’s around the farm.” Lloyd said.

  “Let’s see about getting all this stuff down to the farm then” Jared said as he looked at Steve and smiled. “Send Jason and Logan to pick up Jim. Let’s see if Graham is interested in helping out here.”

  An hour later Lloyd stood in shock, watching as Jared’s people picked the place clean. Dozers, back hoes, snowmobiles were loaded on the trailers and hauled down to the visitor center. One group cleaned out the cabinets, another group used an engine hoist and loaded all the toolboxes into the back of their Deuce and halves. Lloyd’s people tried to keep up, but they hadn’t learned how to strip a building under threat of being eaten. Rob used a torch to cut into the tool room. As soon as he had it opened People streamed in and were passing out tools that were loaded quickly.

  In the middle of all of that, Jim arrived with three large trucks with 1500-gallon tanks mounted on the back and two more trucks loaded with empty 50-gallon barrels, behind them were Jared’s fuel trucks’.

  As the vehicles lined up at the fuel tanks, Jim leaped out and walked over to where Lloyd stood watching the controlled chaos. “Glad to see John was willing to help out” Lloyd remarked.

  “For a price” Jim replied, seeing the look Lloyd gave him, Jim chuckled. “He wants one of the fuel trucks for his people and half the barrels.” Jim said.

  “Sounds Fair enough to me.” Lloyd said. “Good neighbors are so hard to find.” Jim chuckled. “Saw a couple of walkers on the trail over to Cherokee too, they seemed to have a hard time walking thru snow.”

  “Good to know, we might not have much of a problem with them during the winter then.” Lloyds only real fear was that the hordes from the surrounding cities and towns would wander up into the park. But there were only so many ways into the park for them to take and he had plans on dealing with that.

  with Cherokee straddling the 441 any undead coming up that way would hit that town first, and Lloyd would rather run the mile and half or two miles to help Graham than have to wait for Graham and his people to come and save them.

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  The parking area of the visitor center was over flowing with all the new vehicles by the time Lloyd returned with Jared. The four wheelers they had salvaged, had been fitted with the small trailers and were already being put to use hauling all the parts, paint, and tools across the bridge to be stored in the Drovers barn. They would have to wait to unload the large stuff till the Engine hoist was put back together. Then Jared put a stop to the offloading. “We might as well wait till we can build a shelter for all of it” Jared explained to the others. “I think we can use some of that building material to build a shop down here, at the center so you can do what you need without having to drive that far.” Jared said as he looked across the snow-covered trees to the fields beyond.

  “You don’t believe in taking it easy do you” Lloyd asked shaking his head in disbelief.

  Jared shrugged, “think about it, we can’t get most of the large stuff across the bridge and to the barn, without a hell of a lot of work. And Some of this needs to be stored here at the center, keep it spread out in case you lose one storage place you don’t lose all the supplies.” Jared said, blowing on his hands. “Since I can’t build crap, lets get someone who can start on that shed. Then I am going inside, its freezing out here.”

  It only took some ten more minutes before Lloyd had gathered the men he needed and got them to work on the new shed.

  “Before all this, I never thought much about how cold it was outside, but now...now I know exactly how badly this sucks” Lloyd commented as they started towards the Visitor Center

  Jared spotted Steve, over by the snowplow where Rob was working on the Carburetor. Waving a hand, he caught Steve's attention. “I need you to handle it out here.” Jared called out. Steve nodded and turned back to the Snowplow and his conversation with Rob.

  Lloyd delayed only long enough to get Jim and Rachael to join them. The small group trudged across the churned and muddy snow in the parking lot, then ducked into the warmth of the Visitor center.

  Inside Jared and the others shrugged off their coats. “Starting tomorrow we have to work on the defenses,” Jared said conversationally. “And now you have the stuff to do it with” he said motioning back at the parking lot. The group gathered around a table, where Jared produced a map and spread it out on the tabletop as he described what he thought would be the best defenses.

  “we can get the heavy equipment in to the farm if we take the dozers and other vehicles up here, where the road crossed Raven fork,” the Raven fork composed the southern edge and defense of the farm’s land. The only weak point in the natural defenses was the narrow strip of land on the north side of the river near the bridge and it was the only way, without trying to drive through the river that would allow them to get the heavy equipment onto the farm. “once we cross the bridge, we can drive the across that pasture, so we can work inside the actual farm area.” Jared said pointed out the spot on the map, “once there we can use the heavies to dig holes, and trenches, pull up trees to use in a palisade wall, which we will place across this spot just west of the bridge, which is the shortest distance between the ridge and the river.

  While a group is working on that, we will fort up around the visitor center and the bridge” Seeing the look that Lloyd gave him, Jared added. “for added protection it’s a much smaller area and we can easily build walls around it using the heavy equipment. That way we have a place to retreat to if we need it.” Jared explained. “While that’s going on a third group will be clearing this area along the hills on the eastern edge of the farm for DFP’s and an eventual palisade wall.” Jared added, Lloyd studied the map carefully picturing the area then nodded, the two men quickly worked out a plan to make it happen as fast as they could.

  The river Valley where the farm wa
s located had one hell of a view. To the west lay Mt. Stand Waiti, Fox Knob, Thomas ridge loomed over newfound gap road. Directly north of the Farm, Richland Mountain lay between the Ocanaluftee river and raven fork, to the east Stony Mountain. To the southeast across the Raven lay Rattlesnake mountain and southwest Mt. Noble. The farm itself sat in the confluence of the Ocanaluftee and Raven Fork Rivers.

  Newfound gap road, the only Road access from Gatlinburg ran along the west side of the valley parallel to the Ocanaluftee which was on the east side of the road.

  “It’s a good setup really,” Jared said. “The farm has the two rivers to act as a barrier to the undead and people who aren’t prepared to swim, except for this spot, where Coves road runs along the north side of Raven fork before crossing to the south side. We will have to build a wall there and block access from the bridge. One end will be anchored against the rock face here and run to here next to the river. That means any attackers from that direction will have a ridge on their north, the river on their south and a palisade wall in front of them. their only escape will be to run back the way they came or will have to make a run to cross the bridge under fire the entire way.” Jared said tracing out the route, and explaining his idea on forcing the enemy to slow down at the bridge by placing old cars to create a maze that would have to be navigated to reach the bridge. They could place traps in and around the cars to discourage sheltering in place but the whole point was to funnel the enemy through a kill zone. Hopefully, the enemy would realize it and call off the attack and no one would get killed but that was unlikely to happen for many reasons, he thought almost angry at the stupidity that led to rushing to get killed instead of trying to talk first.