The Clock Runs Down 2

by Joe Kelly

  The Man who held her at gun point gawked as his buddy toppled to the floor. His anticipation of the rape to come vanished and then Linda shot him dead feeling sick to her stomach. From the back of the RV she heard Pappy’s voice, slurred but understandable. “Fucking, stupid, short dicked, no brained, syphilis infected Dick head.” she wasn’t sure that his being able to talk now was a blessing or not. But thank God, he could still shoot.

  Bubba, snarled as he sprayed one of the cabins, where someone had been shooting at him. Six more of his men were down, they had been stupid enough to try to charge the cabin and had been cut in half by whatever the hell that big gun was. A few more of those damn grenades had gone off too killing two more of his men. He had lost several of his men to the walking corpses that had been their comrades just moments ago.

  There were sounds of gunfire from the RVs. Were three of his men had low crawled over to them and had obviously entered one or more of the vehicles. He lay there watching the upper window of the arena where he had seen the muzzle flashes of the big gun and saw it move. He fired and saw the barrel flip up towards the sky.

  “Move, move” Bubba shouted leaping to his feet. His men followed his lead and charged down the airstrip, shooting their dead companions as they went. They covered the distance rapidly only to come under fire once more from the school bus.

  Ben fired the heavy weapon as fast as he could and then as bullets began slamming into the school bus, he scrambled out from underneath the bus and ran into the brush line beyond. This was nothing like he had ever imagined from the movies.

  Keith dragged Seth into the brush behind the cabins, the incoming fire was too damn heavy to stay where they had been, he crouched over Seth his weapon up hoping the brush had them concealed.

  Keith heard shouting and more gunfire then a weapon fired close by his position and something fell to the ground behind him. He whirled and saw a slim man in overalls laying two feet behind him a bullet hole in his forehead.

  “You owe me” Jerry said running past. “and people said Wii’s were a waste of time. Bastard was sneaking up on you” Jerry added and flashed a grin at Keith Before he wriggled thru a window into the cabin where Ryan was sheltering.

  Sharon reached the edge of the woods and knelt leaning against a tree. Men were running forward firing at the buildings. She couldn’t just sit back while others were fighting for her and the others.

  she noted at least ten were peeling off to check the RVs. “can’t let that happen” she said lifting her rifle. “god don’t let our baby get hurt” she prayed aloud as she pulled back on the trigger.

  Bubba shook his head, not sure he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing, three women, and a boy, armed to the teeth explode from the brush line near the RVs and shoot down four of his men and vanish back into the woods.

  He sprayed the woods where they had been, and then threw himself to the ground as someone in the cabins to the west of the air strip opened fire. “ Son of a whore” He cursed as all hell broke loose behind them.

  Smoke spiraled into sky from the ruined vehicles; a fire had started in one Rv, when a bullet had punctured a Propane line. Rob had, had the foresight to move the fuel trucks and the supply trucks to the side of runway clearing at the north end. But they hadn’t had much more time than that. a grenade had detonated near the log pile and had somehow ignited the grass, and now the fire was spreading into the stacked logs.

  Team one had ghosted thru the woods the last hundred yards utterly silent. The veterans in the team spread out in a loose skirmish line, keeping to cover. They could hear steady gun fire from the other side of the buildings. Team two, had reached their position at the entrance to the camp, and were blasting the hell out of anything that moved. And Jared was sure some things that didn’t

  Ori spotting Keith kneeling behind some bushes, sliding up quietly without being seen Ori said “Keith, get down and let us deal with this.” Keith almost flew to his feet out of sheer surprise, He stopped himself at the last second recognizing the voice. He lay down draping himself over Seth and waited.

  Jared watched a Raider creep around the corner of what was left of Cabin one, and slip up to the window of the second cabin, where one or more of Jared’s people were shooting from. Jared was no more than twenty feet from the man crouching in the shadows of thick brush and trees, Jared carefully slung his Weapon across his back and drew the combat knife strapped to his boot as he moved as silent as ghost towards his target

  He slipped up behind the man as the raider peered over the sill into the cabin and raised his rifle to fire inside. Jared drove his knife up and into the spot where the spine met the skull, catching the falling corpse he lowered it to the ground, then sheathed his knife.

  He glanced left and saw Jason boosting Ori up onto the roof of the Bathhouse. Almost feel sorry for them when Ori starts taking them under fire, Jared thought as he slipped along the wall of the cabin before going prone and peering around the corner. Clear, he thought seeing no one between the two cabins. He rose smoothly to his feet and moved to the front corner so he could see out onto the airstrip.

  He waited for a moment, listening to the bursts of gunfire and ignoring the fear he felt for his people. How many of them were dead or dying right now, I should have left earlier, He thought as he consulted his mental clock and realized the rest of Team one should be in position by now. He sent a single click over the radio. A moment later each team member responded with two clicks in return. They were in position; His smile was predatory as he lifted his rifle.

  The raiders reeled as coordinated fire tore into them. Bubba gagged as blood flew into his mouth and splattered his face, when Jamie, laying next to him, got his damn fool head blown off.

  Bubba could see his men reeling as they fired blindly back, not even sure where the new attackers were at. Morgan Black, who had been vying for control of the gang was shouting orders trying to get the men rallied and under cover. They were still adjusting when Team one stormed into their flank using every bit of cover available as they came on firing steadily.

  Bubba never encountered anything like this in his life. the few survivors he and his men had hit had barely even resisted, but this, this was something different. Almost panicked he rolled across the field and into the brush, where he had seen six of his men run a moment ago. He didn’t know how many of the enemy there were out there. But they had to have just shown up. The fire was to precise, to controlled to be the people he had been shooting at. These were the guys who had rolled out of camp this morning. They must have just come up the road and heard the firefight.

  Something exploded down the line where he had seen vehicles parked earlier and grinned take that, he thought viciously. Spotting Billy Kay hunkered down in the brush nearby Bubba called out. “Follow me” then gagged as Billy’s head exploded from a high caliber round. Holy crap, he cried silently as he dropped to the ground wiggling deeper into the woods. He only wanted to get away from these people.

  “well shit” Jared muttered then bit the inside of his lip fighting the pain. He looked down and saw blood, it didn’t look as bad as it felt. I’m tired of being shot, he thought as he limped to cover, firing steadily at the enemy. A raider went down, another tried to run to Jared’s right, hoping to use a wrecked truck for cover. Three rounds struck him, the raider stumbled then fell. Jared put a bullet into the head to keep him from coming back.

  Carol and Bridget leap from the woods shooting at three men who were running to escape the fire in an attempt to get behind the RVs to try and place the bulk of the RVs between them and Team one’s fire hoping that Jared and his people wouldn’t just shoot through the RV’s to get them.

  One man staggered and fell, a second man stumble but limped on, the third raider fired at the two women. Carol doubled over and collapsed to the ground. Jared’s stomach twisted in anger and grief. His face was smooth and unworried as if he were about to watch Tv as he peered calmly through the scope on his weapon laying his cross ha
irs carefully then stroked the trigger. The man who had shot Carol went to the ground half his skull gone transformed into fine red tinged mist. Jared felt nothing but satisfaction seeing the man go down then he saw the bullet riddled School bus. “Oh God no” he moaned as panic, grief and fury warred in his heart at the sight. He grunted in pain as another round grazed his shoulder just as he reached cover.

  The fight was over the few raiders still able were fleeing into the woods, the camp defenders let them go. They had spent a lot of ammunition already and were not eager to waste more on fleeing men instead they put down the newly risen undead.

  Jared slumped against the cabin wall and slid to a seat on the ground, he ejected the spent magazine in his weapon and replaced it. With that accomplished he retrieved a pressure bandage from a pouch on his harness and quickly applied it to his leg wound. He struggled to rise only to stop as Steve walked quickly to his side. “Steady there brother,” Steve said.

  “I need to check things out, I need to know about the kids and Jill, the bus was shot to hell Steve.” Jared told him. Steve placed a large hand on his shoulder and pushed him gently down. “I’ll take care of it Jared. You just rest here. Jill will be here in a minute so, I just saw her over at the shower house, Don’t worry about her.”

  I just hope everyone else is okay, Jared thought desperately but he knew that it just wasn’t possible.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “The Kids are fine” Steve told him, “Rob got them into the woods before the fight”

  “thank God,” Jared said going weak with relief.

  “Thomas, Lee, Donald and Dawn were Killed. Clay, Ryan, Jerry, Rob, Seth, Carol, Chloe and Mai Linn are wounded.” Steve said half an hour later as he dropped to the ground and sat next to Jared sat with his back against the wall of Bullet Riddled Cabin two.

  Jared sat there staring at the wall across from him, It was all his fault, four people dead, and eight wounded. My fault, all my damn fault. The fact that he had limited manpower and had needed it for the run didn’t matter, he should have seen something like this coming.

  “Sharon, got into the fight too, took out five raiders and saved a couple of other people.” Steve said shaking his head angrily. “she did good but it was stupid of her.”

  “It was that” Jared said, if anything had happened to her the baby. He stopped not wanting to think about it. At least she and the baby were alive and unhurt.

  “Two guys got into the med RV and attempted to rape Linda” Steve continued smiling and motioned at Jared to remain calm. “Linda put a pistol in Pappy’s bed when she was warned of the attack, just in case, and apparently Pappy was in no mood for interruptions or rapists, he shot one of them, Linda got the other. then according to Linda, Pappy proceeded to cuss the dead raiders for ten minutes.” Jared didn’t respond but he looked relieved.

  “the Bus is toast, and two RVs are shot to shit. Not to mention one of them burned up” Steve said continuing his report. “Jason’s Subaru got blown up when Ryan lost his balance and pulled the trigger on the 203, his HEAP round landed in the back. Henrys Jeep was shot to shit too. A few of the other Rvs were shot, but nothing we cant repair.” He paused for a moment “Sharon’s the one that gave them warning” he said suddenly.

  “how? Did she see them approaching or what?” Jared asked.

  “Believe it or not, she says she was taking a nap and Mark came to her in a dream and told her the camp was about to be attacked and she needed to wake up.” Steve said. “its because of that, Beth and Mattie were able to get the kids to safety and Rob arraigned a little ambush. Guess it’s a good thing we left the .50 behind.”

  Jared got to his feet wincing with pain. “let’s find out how soon we can haul ass, we need to get out of here soon, like tomorrow if we can. This will bring the undead down on us like nothing else.” Jared said as he glanced toward the sky. If not for Rob’s quick thinking and Sharon’s warning. The kids and all the others would have been hurt badly or mostly likely killed. “they did good didn’t they” Jared said suddenly.

  . “Damn good considering the only real training they’ve had was a bare minimal.” Steve said, nodding in agreement.

  “Get things organized would you Steve, we need to leave tomorrow morning, first light. I think we can still head for that camp outside Spartan. I might change that though. But first let’s get our dead buried, the wounded tended to and then we can pack up. After that you can spend some quality time with Bridget and Sharon. And tell Sharon the next time she decides to wobble into combat, Ill duct tape her ass to a chair” Jared said as he limped towards his RV, with Logan and Jill on each side in case he needed help.

  Steve only stared at Jared for a moment as he realized what Jared had said, then thought most everyone probably had figured out by now what was going on with the three of them anyway. God, I hope they don’t think I’ve been lusting after Sharon all this time, or had a fling with her while Mark was alive.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Mikhail parked the truck on the airstrip and looked around. Taking in the damage, The still smoldering wreckage of a Pavilion that had burned to the ground was close by two Rvs, one burnt out the other riddled with holes just like the nearby a school bus that looked more like swiss cheese and still leaking fluids out onto the ground. A bullet riddled jeep and the blackened wreckage of a small truck like vehicle sat to the north.

  He walked across and peered into the half-collapsed cabin that was more holes than wood. In the next cabin he saw blood, but not a lot. He searched the rest of the buildings carefully and found some spent brass, but little else. at the north end of the strip, were several fresh graves. He knelt and sifted a bit of the earth thru his fingers. Wondering if the dead in those graves felt cheated. He rose and dusted his hand off on his pants and walked slowly back to the Truck he had picked up in Asheville, a nice Ford f250, Customized off road package for the police department. He found it amusing to be driving a vehicle with a badge on the side.

  “not far behind them at all” he said aloud. Knowing that whatever that thing was that followed him around sometimes could hear him. “Guess I’ll have to keep scouting around for them, but they can’t get to far ahead of me. Should be able to find them in a week. Nine days tops, Id imagine.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Cole, dirty and emotionally exhausted sat silently watching the dying man wrapped in a blanket on the floor. Frank and his girlfriend were holding each other trying to find comfort in each other’s arms.

  We are done, Cole told himself unable to really even care now. Outside the window, he could see the smoke rising into the sky from the ruins of two of the buildings that had house many of his people. A bit of the old anger stirred as he thought of the deaths, and Michael, it could only have been Michael who had made and planted the bomb that had killed so many. The fires that had followed had killed those trapped in the rubble. What was left of his group were in building B, ready to just give up. It had taken two hours to put down ever reanimated corpse and he knew that there had to be more buried under the rubble that might some how get free.

  And then there was Oliver, he thought sadly as he gazed at the dying man badly burned man. He had raced into a burning building trying to save a teen aged girl, she hadn’t made it and he had barely gotten back outside before collapsing. Cole stared down at the pistol he held in his lap hating what was coming. But it had to be done, Oliver wouldn’t make it past tonight no matter they did and he wasn’t going to come back as one of those tings. .

  Oliver, had gotten badly burned trying to save a teen-aged girl from the burning admin building, and probably wouldn’t last the night, Cole had made sure that there was an armed Guard sitting with Oliver, so when the man died, he could be put down before his corpse got back up.

  If I hadn’t been outside inspecting the well, I would have died with the others and I wished I had. I’m not sure I can go on, not now. Not when so many died because I wouldn’t buck the popular vote and let that murderous animal inside.


  Outside in the lobby he heard the squeal of the hinges on the front door, the undead got inside, he thought as he lifted the pistol almost relieved that it was almost over.

  “Cole, anyone” Reba’s voice broke the silence surprising him what was she doing back, he thought followed immediately by thank God, she wasn’t here when all this happened.

  “In here” he called out. Standing as she entered the room a moment later

  .

  “we saw the smoke and the fire and came back to check on you, we got a tour bus, we can bring to the tunnel entrance and load everyone if you want to go” she said then stopped as Cole walked unsteadily towards her, he hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry, you were right, damn you were right” he whispered into her hair. Just seeing her, holding her drew him out of his malaise, not all the way but enough to keep going for another day.

  “the walls are still standing, but I wouldn’t stay here Cole,” she said looking up into his eyes. “He could come back to finish what he started, blow a hole in the wall, or knock the gate down.”