The Clock Runs Down_The Servant

by Joe Kelly

  Ori had decided to dump his truck, the truck he had lovingly rebuilt from the frame up to make it one hell of an offroad machine. Its biggest problem was miles per gallon. Not that RVs got much more mileage either. He was going to grab something with better milag and some offroad capability along the road. Lloyd had promised to take care of Ori’s truck and they could definitely use it in this area.

  He had also been busy setting up combat Teams, He wanted Chris, Ori, Steve, Ronny, Logan and Jill on team one. Team two would be composed of Chad, Kyle, Clay, Taylor, John Madoc and a couple of other people from Logan’s old group.

  Chad had enough training now to do a credible imitation of a squad leader for the second team and Mary, would lead Team three composed of Henry, who had become much more of a team player since the One eyed man had interfered with his life, Ryan, a 17 year old who had been at the farm with friends when the world ended, Jerry, Ryan’s only remaining friend, along with Gabriel and Barry. All of them had been put thru the training program and were at least competent enough not to shoot themselves or hopefully any one else not shooting at them.

  Ronny still wanted to get a real plane and said he knew exactly where one was at, and wanted permission to scout ahead to where that plane was as soon as the weather cleared up enough to get back over the mountains.

  According to him it was some old war world 2 navy or was it air force plane, made to take off and land on both rough fields and water. it could carry a pilot, navigator and two more people, four if they sat in each other’s laps. Possibly even six if they really crammed in. Jared had asked him if he was sure he could fly it and Ronny’s answer had been “if it can crash, I can fly it”. Jared not thrilled with that comment put a question mark next that idea in his notebook. Tomorrow was going to be a true bitch he suspected.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The sun rose in a splash of rose and gold. It was a cold crisp morning, with only wisps of clouds across the sky. Jared stood beside the plow, taking a few deep breaths enjoying the morning. Lloyds people were running the patrols today, and would be pulling a lot more Patrol duty to get used to it before Jared’s crew pulled out.

  They drove thru the gutted town of Cherokee, where several more buildings had burned down over the last couple of months, and surprisingly saw no zombies. Jared noted every intact gas station they passed. What he really wanted was to find one of those semi truck fuel tankers. They would be sitting pretty fuel wise if they could just luck into one.

  On the south side of Cherokee, they had to maneuver thru a massive car wreck. Jared used the plow to push as many vehicles out of the way as possible. Sometimes, he could see the Undead still strapped into their seats inside the wrecks, beating on the windows or the steering wheel. It was an image that was hard to shake.

  It took almost an hour to cover eight miles, between the snow and the wrecks. But they eventually found themselves on 74 heading south. “Look at that” Jill said pointing to a Highway patrol car half buried in snow. “coming to a stop” Jared said over the radio then applied the brakes and came to a stop near the cruiser. Jill climbed into the bed of the snow plow and covered him.

  The Patrol car door was closed, unable to see anything thru the dirty, frost covered windows Jared tapped on the window. Hearing nothing he steeled his nerves he tried the car handle but it was frozen shut.

  Undeterred he drew one of his Tomahawks and shattered the window. Shining a light into the interior he saw the front seat was empty. The barrier between the driver’s section and the back was intact so he wasn’t worried about any zombies that might be back there.

  There was a rack that held a shotgun, but nothing in the seats. checking the floorboard, he saw nothing, no zombies curled up or items worth taking. Reaching inside he retrieved the 12 gauge pump shotgun from the rack a quick check showed him the ammo sleeve on the butt of the stock was full.

  He hunted around till he found the trunk release. The Ice that covered the Trunk wasn’t anything to worry about. He could use a Tomahawk to break it, and if that didn’t work. He could cut a hole in the trunk lid. Got to love mil spec, military issued combat tomahawks he thought. they had been designed to cut through metal.

  He was just pulling out of the window when something slammed against the clear plastic divider startling him. Jared jerked upright and hit his head on the roof of the cruiser. He shone his light in the back and saw, a zombie, emaciated beyond belief, trying to gnaw at the plastic to get at him. Its arms were still handcuffed Jared noted and it wore the old AC/DC concert t-shirt the man had died in.

  poor bastard must have starved to death locked in the back of the cruiser. Probably lived for a while with zombies clawing at windows till he went bat shit before he died, who wouldn’t, Jared thought disturbed by the idea.

  Getting the trunk open turned out to be fairly easy, inside was a gear bag and a weapon case. Opening the case he smiled in appreciation as he picked up the fully tricked out AR.

  There was probably ten extra pounds on the front of the weapon due to all the rails and extra gear attached to them, Jared thought as he slung it over his shoulder then continued to look through the trunks contents. The gear bag had several goodies worth taking including eight Magazines for the AR, a cleaning kit, and an extra barrel inside.

  He wondered just how many rounds that trooper thought he was going to have to send downrange to need an extra barrel. There was also an emergency kit, mostly first aid stuff, two boxes of ammo for the Mossberg, and five for the AR. The last couple of things he found was set of body armor, and in a small black case tucked in the back corner of the truck, fourth gen. NVG’s with two spare batteries. He carried his haul back to the plow and stored it in the back. “Well that was worth a stop” he commented as he pulled away.

  Jill was the one who spotted the sign for the RV park a little later. He slowed and took the turn, the drive during the spring would have been nice with the overarching tree limbs. In the winter it looked more like a road in a horror movie that would dead end at a cemetery.

  He slowed to a crawl as they passed the cabin that served as the parks office. Most of the slots were filled he noted as they entered the campground proper. The camp was dived in two halves, a central lane ran down the center and connecting the two circular drives on each side.

  Towards the back of the park were a row of cabins, six to each side of a common house that held a kitchen, dining area, bathrooms with showers and a laundry room. A gravel path with a sign that pointed behind the cabins to a tent camping area.

  “why do you think so many stayed here” Jill asked looking around.

  “some people lived in their RVs and had no other place to go, others were on long family vacations from out of state and probably decided that staying put was safer than trying to drive on interstates that were already being closed, and even worse ran thru a city.” Jared replied.

  They did two passes on the center road, then cleared each loop of any undead they saw. In all it took an hour.

  Jared parked the plow on the center lane. “team one and two north side. Team three you’re on Guard.” He said as he opened the door and hopped out of the plow. He walked around to the passenger side. where the rest of the team gathered. Here and there they could see zombies in the snow, struggling to get to the living meat. “melee only” Jared said drawing his tomahawks. Team two already knew that on the guard function of their mission they were only to fire if any zombies made it to the vehicles.

  There were twenty RVs on the north side, Jared led the team to camp site right at the entrance to the east loop. “we need to clear them all,” Jared said. “might be stuff in them we can use anyway.” They dispatched the two zombies near the huge maroon and white RV with slide outs, quickly.

  Jared walked up and knocked on the RVs door then waited. After a moment they could hear something bumping around inside the vehicle moving closer to the door.

  “I really hate slow motion combat” Chris muttered, it was rapidly becoming his phrase of cho
ice these days. Jared knocked again, and something hit the door on the other side. he stepped back and nodded at Logan who stood safely to one side and opened the door.

  An elderly zombie, dressed in cargo shorts, a bright orange T shirt and one sandal lunged out the door hands outstretched, trying to grasp the first person it saw, which was Jared. who calmly planted the butt spike of the tomahawk into its skull. It collapsed into the snow without a sound.

  “Three down, and one, two damn many left to go” Ronny said watching a zombie that was steadily making its way closer thru the snow. It should be here by the day after tomorrow he thought. “anyone remember that movie Space balls?” he asked.

  “Keep your mind on the mission” Jared said as he stepped inside, followed by Steve.

  “just wondering if any one remembers the name of the woman who played princess what’s her name. She was smoking hot.”

  “she’s probably wandering around LA today.” Jill said giving him a glare.

  The rest of the Rv proved to be empty of the undead. The Next RV went smoothly they killed the slow creeper as they approached and repeated the knocking procedure. Chris added in taunting as a change of pace.

  Which was really wasted effort since the RV was empty of people as well as undead. The third RV was a bloody mess. When the door opened, the first zombie out was a kid all of ten years old, his ear was missing and part of his thigh. His sister, still dressed in a little sun dress, was missing most of her throat. Jared buried a tomahawk in the boys forehead, and pivoted to the left and smashed his offhand tomahawk into the little girl’s head. Jill turned away retching.

  Daddy zombie piled out and somehow knocked Chris down with his flailing arms. Daddy turned and jumped on Chris instantly. Chris managed to get a hand under its jaw and was holding its snapping teeth away from his throat.

  Logan rushed up his axe raised over his head, and Chris screamed at him to stop. Jill was the closest, and stepped in drawing a long knife and drove it into Daddy’s ear. The dead weight collapsed on Chris who cursed heavily in relief. So heavily in fact that Jared considered starting a Pappy’s Medal of Creative and masterful cursing and award it to him on the spot.

  It was at that moment momma zombie, a once pretty brunette in shorts and a bikini top rushed out of the RV, Straight for Logan. Who, much to his embarrassment, screamed like a little girl and back pedaled. Suddenly she went flying into the side of the RV her head caved in from the butt of Steve’s rifle. “Focus people.” Steve said looking grim.

  Jared entered the RV and tried to ignore the blood splattered teddy bear and coloring books, but it was so damn hard. The cupboards were mostly full and there was no way in hell he was going to open the fridge.

  In the little built in nightstand he found a lock box that wasn’t quite strong enough to withstand his Tomahawk. Inside was a colt 1911, two extra magazines and two boxes of ammo. he slid all of it into the cargo pocket of his BDU’s.

  By one pm they had the north side completely clear. They had found several small arms, mostly Glocks, a couple of Sigs. “do we really need to clear the south side?” Ronny asked eyeing the RVs, over there.

  “do we need food?” Jared replied. Ronny didn’t argue, every bit of food they could stock the RVs with before they left the Farm would be of great help.

  “I’m claiming that one.” Ori said pointing to a Green and Tan RV that had a Land Rover parked next to it.

  “why that RV” Chris asked.

  “Not the RV you twit the Land rover, I’ll haul it behind which ever RV I decide on.” Ori said almost grinning at the thought of having a Land Rover to play with.

  “Twit, who in the hell uses twit anymore” Ronny asked as they moved across the center lane and set up to hit the first RV on the south side. Jared had Team three move up and had team two move to the second loop on the south side.

  “Chad remember, slow and steady. Remember the drills.” Jared reminded the younger man, thinking he really should have put one of the experienced guys in the group with Team two. “all right lets do it”

  By the time they finished, it was almost an hour before sunset. Sunset in the mountains was usually earlier than the low lands, people who didn’t live in the mountains rarely knew that little fact. Occasionally if you looked up after sunset you could see the peaks still lined with the sunset even though it was dark in the valleys.

  “do you want to come back tomorrow and finish this” Ronny asked looking at the shadows already starting their slow creep across the ground.

  “No, we have the RVs picked out already. Team three can pull guard while the rest of us strip as much as we can from the Rv’s we are leaving behind. Concentrate on food first.”

  It took only an hour to strip out all the food stuffs in the RVs. the pantry spaces and cabinets were not that large. With no zombies in sight, Jared handed out the three NVGs to Chad, Ronny and Mary who would act as look outs while the rest of the group went back in and searched by flashlight. Jared really didn’t want to come back later, and really hated the thought of leaving something they might need.

  Jill stripped every set of sheets, pillows, towels, paper towels, tampons, toilet paper, pots, pans, silverware, pretty much everything including the curtains from each RV she entered.

  Jared had to laugh, she was thinking practically while the men were looking for weapons and ammo, food and tools, and finding little of it. he didn’t doubt some of the weapons were laying in the snow where they owners had dropped them when they had been pulled down and eaten by the undead.

  All they walked away with weapon wise were two 30 30’s, and about five hundred rounds of 30 30 ammo. two more boxes of 9mil.

  they had also recovered about twenty fishing poles, ten tackle boxes. Four cb’s, a portable cd player and twenty movies. Mostly kids movies, though Ronny, go figure, had found some porn DVD’s in another RV. They loaded it all up. Team three, tasked with driving the new Rv back to the Farm s along with some of members of Teams one and two.

  And that is when hit they first snags. Some of the RVs refused to start, Private Murphy strikes again.

  Jared decided to send Ronny and Chris back along with the younger members of Team three and bring Rob and Eric back out here to with tools. The rest of the teams would stay here and guard their new vehicles. Ori had already checked out the Land rover and it started up easily, much to everyone’s surprise.

  While they waited, Jared had a few people check over the generators in the RVs. The ones fitted with the silent generators were tested and then fired up. He had half the remaining people go inside, and get the heat on and relax. While the other half stayed outside and kept watch.

  “Did you hear that.” Ori asked over the radio.

  “Hear what” Steve responded, he couldn’t hear a thing but the wind through the trees.

  “a Motor somewhere south and west of us.” Ori responded.

  “Might be Ronny coming back” Steve suggested still not hearing a thing

  “not from the southwest you idiot.” Ori replied

  “Quiet let me listen” Jared called out.

  At first, he heard nothing, then after a few minutes he heard what sounded like a vehicle motor off in the distance. After a bit it faded out.

  “think it could be those militia weenies” Ori asked.

  “maybe, might be a troop of heavily armed girl scouts selling cookies too” Steve said laughing softly.

  “Remember that girlfriend of Ronny’s” Ori asked suddenly. “Remember we showed up at his place and that cute little blond of his answered the door thinking it was Ronny and she was wearing that girl scout uniform, it was like two sizes to small.”

  Steve laughed over the radio. “Remember that, hell I still fantasize about that one.” Steve transmitted, chuckling.

  “com sec folks” Jared said cutting them off.

  Half an hour later Ronnie and the others returned. The trucks pulled up and stopped, men piling out

  Rob hopped out of Ronny’s truck, with only
a grunt of greeting to Jared and headed to the first RV. Jared headed inside the powered Rv and sent out those insides out to take over guard duty.

  Steve sprawled on the couch and looked around thoughtfully. “do you ever think that heading to the coast is the wrong move Jared.” Steve asked, suddenly

  “Every day brother’ Jared replied.

  “Then why keep going that way. I mean dreams and scraps of radio chatter don’t mean much. The closer we get, the thicker the dead are going to be in and around the towns and cities.

  We faced how many zombies on Christmas, out here, and that was hard enough and with prepared defenses and a good plan and lots of ammo. But what if we have to roll thru Raleigh, or Charleston. I hate to piss in your cheerios, but we don’t have the ammo for that.”