When the Clock strikes 12

Chapter 1 - Day 1 - A New Day In Hell

Devan is just an ordinary man in some not so ordinary times, where every day is a risk and necessities like food and water are scarce, you must spend every waking moment effectively to survive. Devan yawns and then turns to his side "Wow 5:30, That's surprisingly early, I wonder if Kathryn's up?" he ponders as he walks out of his tent. Devan shields his eyes from the sun as he walks out of his tent, "Ah, a new day begins." Devan says as he walks out, taking in a breath of the crisp autumn air.

Devan walked towards the portable grill set up between the two survivors' tents and proceeded to crack two singular eggs onto the pan, "Nothing like some good eggs to start your day." he said as he watched the eggs sizzle and pop in the frying pan. A couple of minutes later, he heard some yawning from the other tent, soon enough, he saw a woman come out, "Kathryn! your up early." he remarks, "Well I was woken up by the smell of your cooking! You cook so well, You could've easily become a master chef if the virus hadn't broken out" the bright-eyed woman remarked, "Haha, I'd like to think so" replies Devan, "Seriously Dev, You don't know your own talents" "Okay you win." Devan submits. Kathryn and Devan were best friends since day one as they were born on the same day, at the same hospital, and they grew up very close because their parents were childhood friends, the two were nearly inseparable. "Do you think it's time to head out?" asks Devan, "Hell yeah!" Kathryn replies, "Off we go then.".

Devan and Kathryn get into their car and turn on the radio to listen to the forecast, since the weather is irrelevant unless it is extreme, the news forecasts the expected zombie horde sizes and aggression. Devan began to switch channels until he found the zombie weather channel for his area "This is the zombie forecast for the north area of *Redacted*, in the morning the expected horde size is scarce, and the aggression is low, for the afternoon the horde size is large, and the aggression is medium, for the evening the horde size is large, and the aggression is high.", "Let's make this quick," announced Devan. As the two we're driving around the wastes, Kathryn spotted a convenience store that had some things still on the shelves, "Look over there!" she shouted, rather loudly at that, as a few infected turned to her, then resumed walking, "Hey, be quiet." her friend scolded, "Whoops.". Devan and Kathryn got out of their car and began to loot the store, taking extra precautions as not to be seen by the infected. After a little while, the two best friends had nearly finished raiding the store, "Devan how much is left on your side?" Kathryn called out, "Only a couple bags of chips" he answered, but this time one of the infected seemed to notice Kathryn, it slowly turned its head, then quickly grabbed her by the neck and attempted to bite at her. As soon as Devan heard his friend screaming, he bolted towards Kathryn and plunged his knife through the infected's head repeatedly until it dropped to the ground, its discoloured blood slowly pouring out onto the floor, "I told you to be quieter!" he snapped, irritated at Kathryn's lack of attention, Kathryn silently nodded, shaking from the traumatic experience, "Let's go clean all this blood off before it dries." he said before walking to the car to fetch a bucket, Kathryn did the same.

Devan and Kathryn began to search around the store for anything to clean the blood off of their clothes, soon enough Kathryn spotted one of the bathroom sinks that seemed to be functioning, "Hey Devan over here." she said, quieter this time as to not alert any infected, Devan quickly walked over and filled his bucket with water, he then went in one of the stalls, to go clean the blood off of his clothes, Kathryn took the hint and did the same. "You ever wonder if a cure is gonna be made?" asked Kathryn, "I don't know but if it is I hope the person who makes it is nice." her friend replied, "Why's that?" "I just hope they're nice enough to give it out without having to pay is all, because with the shortage of everything; people might not have enough to buy it." "Man you think about everything don't you, I bet you could make a cure!" Kathryn replied cheerfully, "I don't know, it's a possibility.". Once Devan finished cleaning the blood off his clothes, he began to wring them out to dry, "I'd like to say I can, but I'm not sure.", The cloudy eyed man said in contemplation, "I guess the only thing that matters right now is surviving.", "I agree, and I think we're doing a pretty good job.", said Devan as he started to put his clothes back on, "Wow, you always know what to say to lift a person's mood, hehe.", said Kathryn as she put her clothes on too "Eh I guess." he said as he came out of the stall, Kathryn doing the same soon after.

Devan and Kathryn started to drive around, looking for a place to camp out. After a while, they found a decent spot to set up their tents for the night. As the pair were setting up their tents, Devan decided to turn on the radio, Zzzzrt "This is the forecast for *Redacted*, it is almost noon, so the infected count will begin to rise soon." Zzzzrt, Devan was expecting this, so he wondered why he bothered at all. Having done this many times before, Devan and Kathryn made quick work of setting up camp "Time for lunch." Devan announced, "I'm hungry.". Devan and Kathryn got some ingredients out of their car to make their lunch. After the two friends finished lunch, they decided to hide in their tents to get some rest before dark.

Soon enough, the night rolled around, and Devan and Kathryn got out of their tents to fend off the horde of zombies because when the clock strikes 12, you'd better be goddamn ready. As Devan got up he looked down at his watch "11:53, only seven more minutes until the starvation point", The starvation point, as it was called, was the point where all the infected would get extremely hostile all at once for one full hour, this was the main reason why the population was scarce as the first starvation point wiped out the majority of the population. Devan got up from his tent and looked through the scope on his rifle to determine where the horde would be arriving from "Hmm, right over there" Devan said as he spotted a rather large mob of infected, "Better wake up Kathryn" he muttered to himself as he went to Kathryn's tent, "Oi, wake up.", he whispered, "Alright" she said groggily. Within a few minutes, Kathryn came out of her tent; gun in hand, "Let's do this.". Devan looks at his watch one last time, his watch read 11:59. The two prepared to fight as they counted down the final seconds until midnight "3, 2, 1, GO!" and the clock struck 12.

As it happened many times before, all of the zombies started to convulse and twitch, after a few moments, they locked onto the two nearest humans; Devan and Kathryn, and started running at full speed towards them. Devan began to shoot at the zombies, he watched as their internal organs flew out like paint cans at a shooting range. Devan was swift and effective with his sniper rifle, a skill he had perfected over the years using it. Kathryn had just finished putting on her hazmat suit to avoid getting any blood on her person, then, she grabbed her shotgun and ran out to the battlefield. Kathryn was very quick with her shotgun, hitting multiple infected and watching them morph and disfigure with every shot propelling bits and pieces of them into the air, all the while, Devan was still shooting the infected and being extremely careful not to hit Kathryn. It was truly a sight to behold, with the precision of Devan and the effectiveness of Kathryn; the two were nearly unbeatable. As time passed by, The two were careful not to miss a beat and took every opportunity to shoot. Soon enough, 1:00 came by, and the horde subsided. Kathryn trudged back to the camp, exhausted, and cleaned the blood off her suit with the dirty water they had collected from a river, it was not a sanitary way to clean it, but they had to conserve the clean water for drinking, "I'm going to sleep, that was tiring." Kathryn said as she took off her suit and went into her tent. Devan nodded as he went into his tent to change into his pyjamas, then he collapsed onto his sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep.

Word Count - 1 513