“Take it easy Jess!”
“These are travelers who are passin’ through!” Jimmy shouted stepping in front of me.
“Guys—this here is Jesse Lawrence and Hugh Cox.” Jimmy introduced as he motioned to the two men who were obviously hillbilly buddies of his.
“What are you people—military?” Hugh asked lowering his wrench and looking over each member of my group’s weapons.
“No—we’re survivors looking for a way to put an end to the mayhem and the chaos that has taken over the world, the chaos that walks in the form of the dead.” I answered as I glanced at him for only a second.
“So…y’all are fighting those undead bastards then?” Jesse asked as his stare fixed on me.
“That’s right.” Melvin answered as he kind of twirled his handgun in a manner that showed he was trying to show off.
“Then we might as well come along—those damn things attacked this town over two weeks ago…killed and ate just about every living, breathing creature around.” Hugh stated as he glanced around the store and then out the doors behind us with a nervous look on his face.
“How did this town hold out for so long considering this shit has been going on now for the better part of five years?” Noah asked with a curious look as he turned mainly to Jimmy.
“Well—we did have military fellas stationed here and they had the exits and outer boundaries of this town blockaded…but just about a week and a half ago what seemed like a horde of those things attacked; the army was overrun and killed and they got in here and started killin’. Those of us who knew better hid but a lot of our friends and kinfolk was killed.” Jimmy answered with a distant look.
“Hmm…it’s a wonder that there was any military left to defend considering the rest of the country has become like a zombie petting zoo.” I stated as I scratched my chin in deep thought.
“Ain’t we goin’ yet?” Hugh asked suddenly with an impatient look.
“First things first—we came to restock on our food supplies, how are the things in here—are they still editable?” I asked as I walked toward the first isle which was produce.
“Sure, that’s what we’ve been livin’ off of these past few weeks.” Jesse answered as he motioned to the store in general.
“Okay, let’s get what we need and split—we don’t want to hang around in one place for too long.” I said as the others started gathering stuff off the shelves and putting it into their bags and pockets.
We had no more gotten everything we needed and started out the door to the grocery store when the whole ceiling of the place was suddenly ripped away and there to our horror was the huge mutated creature from the underground lab that had broken loose and killed Subotai and the others.
“Holy shit, run!” I shouted grabbing Angie and Jennifer’s hands and pulling them well away from the thing as it shot out something resembling spines and impaled both Jesse and Hugh before lifting them into the air and to our horror and shock—biting their heads completely off.
Jimmy pushed Adam out of the way sending him to the street as the things’ lance like tail impaled his body and then ripped him in half sending his upper torso flying through the air and landing on the windshield of a nearby wrecked sports car; his legs and lower half flew the opposite direction and smashed against the wall of the grocery store. We could all see the intestines hanging out of his upper body as he turned the entire hood of the sports car red. Adam being hurt couldn’t get up or move out of the way as the things’ massive grotesque clawed foot came down and smashed his body on the pavement like a cockroach.
The thing roared and for a split second it sounded almost like a sinister laugh; it was a terrible sound—it started for us when I noticed the leaking fuel tank of a smashed and wrecked semi nearby. I waited until the thing smashed into the semi sort of pushing it aside and then I opened fire on the fuel tank causing it to explode into a fiery inferno; the thing screamed in rage and it looked like it was burning as we all fled down the street away from the middle of town. We were just about five blocks from the scene where the huge monstrosity was still burning and wailing in rage when we came across an APC that had obviously belonged to soldiers who had been assigned to this town; upon examination we seen that there was only one corpse inside of it—a radio operator and he was long dead from a bullet hole in the side of his head suggesting suicide.
We tossed his body out and everyone climbed inside and closed the rear door as I got into the driver’s seat and attempted to drive it down the road, I smashed into a few parked or wrecked cars along the way but eventually we were headed out of the town of Seward and out into the open countryside.
“I cannot believe what just happened…that damn thing from the lab escaped and now it’s after us!” Noah exclaimed in a frantic tone.
“All I know is that it just tore four guys to pieces—guys we could have used later on in helping us fight back against the zombies, they are now dead and we almost didn’t make it out of there.” I answered in an aggravated tone.
“Was that the Entity thing from the fax?” Angie asked as she held Remy tightly in her lap as Mace sat next to her playing with one of her few toys.
“Yeah—had to have been, although it looked like it must have mutated a little more or something.” I answered as I kept my eyes on the road ahead.
“That’s the same damn thing that killed James, Alex, Cole, Patty, Meghan and Subotai…damn it, we weren’t able to kill it and avenge their deaths after all.” Noah said as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with a rag that was sitting on the floor of the APC.
“You think we’ll be safe in this thing?” Melvin asked looking around at the inside interior of the vehicle.
“Well, it’s an armored personnel carrier—all we can do is hope.” Cedric answered in a skeptical voice.
“We’ve got to get to someplace safe—with that damn thing out there on the loose we’re not safe outside anywhere.” I stated with a dark look.
“Chaz—according to this thing here, there’s a military compound not far from here.” Angie said as she leaned over next to me with a laptop accessed into the APC’ digital satellite-powered roadmap.
“Then that might be the safest place for us to go—we’ll head there, most likely it’ll be deserted.” I stated as a little sliver of hope came to my own ravaged and weary mind.
We drove on and before long we arrived at the battered and busted gates of a massive compound that was no doubt military, there was a corpse of a military police officer near the gates that appeared to have been torn apart and devoured; I drove the APC into the rear parking area and everyone got out with their weapons ready—Noah and Christina got out and ran over to the open gates and pulled them closed wrapping a heavy chain around them before climbing back inside of the APC, the sun was already more than halfway in the middle of the sky and it was leaning towards noon. I tried the door in the rear of the compound and it opened with some effort, we were greeted by darkness, but a simple flip of a light switch revealed dozens of mostly devoured corpses of soldiers and officers alike; the first room we came to was what looked like a lounge.
“This place appears to be a tomb—whether or not there are any zombies roaming about in here remains to be discovered, we should be safe in here though.” I stated as I turned to glance at my comrades for a split second.
“Don’t you think that we ought to form scouting parties and go all through this place and kill off any zombies that may be here?” Noah asked with concern in his voice.
“Yeah, form groups of five and make sure you keep your eyes peeled and watch your backs.” I instructed as I turned to look each member of my group in the eye.
“And take these radio communicators with you.” I continued as I took several of them off a nearby desk and gave them to Noah to give to everyone who was going as well as taking one myself.
Everyone who was going left
to search around the compound while Angie, Jennifer and I stayed in the lounge with the few others who had not went. Minutes passed and soon we started hearing gunfire, but it was only occasional and periodic.
“There must not be too many of them in this compound—that’s good news at least.” I said as I held Angie close while she fed our daughters.
She smiled up at me glancing toward Jennifer giving her a sly grin as our lips met in a kiss before she went back to tending to Remy and Mace, it wasn’t too much longer until Noah and the others came back into the lounge.
“Well, there wasn’t too many of them and we searched all the rooms from top to bottom—we killed them all and dumped the bodies out the windows before sealing them with steel shutters.” Noah stated in a relieved tone as he slung his shotgun over his left shoulder.
“Good work guys. Now we can get some rest as well as eat something—this place has a kitchen doesn’t it?” I asked as I glanced around the room curiously.
“Yeah, it’s over near the barracks.” Noah answered grinning.
That evening, Angie, Jennifer, Christina and some of the other women cooked up what we had gotten at the grocery store in Seward and made a meal for everyone; it was sure a change to be able to sit at a table and eat in relative peace without having to worry about something smashing through a door or window and trying to eat you alive.
“If I’m guessing right—this place ought to be a gold mine of weapons and ammo, we ought to get more weapons and ammo while we have the chance…something tells me that fire back there didn’t even come close to killing that thing.” I stated as I sipped at a cola I had gotten out of a nearby soda machine.
“You think it might come here?” Kira asked as she looked over at me with wide eyes.
“I don’t know…it does seem kind of strange how the damn thing knew we were in Seward.” I replied as I took another sip of my soda.
“I know I saw it and all, but I can’t figure somethin’ out…what is this thing anyway?”
“What are we talking about here?” Cedric asked with a confused look as he and Sally got up from the table and sat together on a nearby cot.
“From what we know, it’s a bio-weapon—a living, breathing killing machine and it’s not messing around.” I answered with a distant stare.
“This is the ‘surprise’ Bowman had in store for the world isn’t it?” Christina asked as a little chill ran down her neck.
“Yes—this is obviously the pet science project they were developing down there all that time, it also must have been some kind of guardian set on one initiative to guard that antitoxin sample vial we took from the lab. It was most likely designed to be the guardian of the sample—because as you know, as soon as Noah so carelessly snatched it off the glass casing, it activated something which triggered the barrier that was holding that monster to open.” I explained as I gave Noah a little look that probably made him nervous.
“Hey—I didn’t know that would happen!” Noah retorted.
“I’m not blaming you, what’s done is done. All I’m doing is trying to understand and explain what was most likely that monster’s purpose in being there.” I answered as I made a gesture to him that plainly said “Chill”.
“I think Chaz is right though—that thing did seem like some kind of guardian that was created to be sort of a watch dog to make sure that nobody came in there and took the antitoxin and lived.” Angie said as she sat down next to me with our daughters in her arms.
“I agree—it makes perfect sense. Bowman said in that fax that he wasn’t disclosing any information on where he was going, that also had to mean that he figured that sooner or later someone would find their way down there and discover the antitoxin and try to take it; upon doing so—they would release the Entity which in turn would kill them and go out into the world on a rampage finishing off what’s left of humanity.” My dad stated in a logical tone of voice.
“It’s only logical to assume that this ‘Entity’ was created in a way similar or identical to the zombies using the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin created by Bowman and his goons…it’s also logical to assume that this thing has the ability to mutate with each climate it enters becoming stronger and more deadly.” I added as I sat my can of soda to the side and started looking over the previous fax and other documents that we had found.
“It’s also fairly possible that Bowman and the others blended DNA from certain predators with the toxins in creating this beast—that would explain its hunting characteristics.” Noah said as he got up to stare out one of the nearby windows.
“Right—like the tail with the spike, have you guys noticed how it uses its tail sort of like a scorpion does?” I asked as I glanced at the documents which talked about the Entity in general.
“Yeah—it’s killed two of our friends now that way…what could possibly be its weak point?” Kira asked as she got up and threw her trash into the nearby garbage can.
“I’m not sure…fire doesn’t seem to really hurt it enough, bullets don’t do a hell of a lot either—we’re going to have to discover this things’ weakness soon or else we all just might wind up being its next victims.” I answered grimly.
“I hope we can sleep tonight without having to worry about that thing or anything else getting in here.” My sister stated in a worried tone as her daughter and my niece Ella stood next to her.
“Yeah—we should all get some sleep, there’s plenty of room in the barracks, but by all means—sleep wherever you want, just don’t stray too far off and be on alert.” I said getting up from the table Angie’s hand in mine.
We found our own room that had probably belonged to a high-ranking officer and it had a comfortable looking bed, Angie and Jennifer put Remy and Mace to sleep and then we took off our clothes and climbed under the covers kissing. That night we slept good for the first time since the time we had all fled to Hawaii, Angie, Jennifer and I awoke the next morning and got dressed and then went down to the mess hall where my mom and a few of the others were making breakfast.
“How long do you think we should stay here?” Kira asked as she came into the room and sat down across from me.
“Few days probably—at least until we find out what to do about our big mutated friend from the lab.” I answered glancing up at her.
“Hey Chaz—there’s this big armored semi like thing in one of the rear garage areas, it said on the side panel that it’s some sort of mobile biohazard containment vehicle.” Noah said as he sat on the kitchen countertop swinging his legs back and forth while sipping a cup of coffee.
“We might be able to use it then—there could be something inside that could tell us a little about that sample we found in the lab.” I stated with a smile as I silently hoped that we were about to shed some light on the situation.
There was a sudden crack of thunder from outside, it sounded to be not far off and it made things around the room vibrate.
“Damn…just look at that angry sky.” Noah said looking out one of the open windows toward the west.
“Well, storm or no storm—we should be safe in here.” I answered as I turned to look up toward the angry storm clouds for a minute before going back to what I was doing.
Everyone finished up breakfast and then Noah and I went over to the weapon storage bunkers to see what was there while the whole time the sky got worse and worse looking; we were loading crates that held M16’s and other assault rifles as well as ammo boxes into the big mobile lab vehicle and shortly afterward I filled the mobile lab vehicle’s tank completely up with the nozzle from a nearby diesel pump—I gathered twelve tall, empty gas cans and filled them up stashing them in the back of the trailer that was connected to the vehicle and secured them so they wouldn’t move around. That was when the wind began to pick up causing our clothes to whip around our bodies.
“Damn it—this is tornado country you know?”
“I hope we’re
going to be safe here!” Noah shouted as he fought to keep his baseball cap from blowing off his head.
No more had he said that when it suddenly began to pour down heavy rain that completely soaked the both of us, we made a mad dash for the garage and once we were inside we caught our breaths as we looked out at the lot which was now starting to flood.
“Holy shit, look at that!” I shouted pointing to an area just a little beyond the compound fence.
There to our horror and shock were dozens upon dozens of zombies stumbling through the tall grass and making their way toward us.
“They can’t get through the fence can they?” Noah shouted at the top of his lungs as his voice was now starting to be drowned out by the thunder above and the pounding rain.
“I don’t know—pray that they can’t—otherwise we’re all going to have to leave this place right now.” I shouted back as I cupped my hands to my face so he would hear me.
There was a sudden blinding flash of lightening that made Noah and I fall to the concrete floor on our stomachs as a bolt of lightning shot down out of the sky hitting the transformer in the small power plant nearby and caused an explosion; before either of us could even hardly get up—everything in the compound went black.
“Damn it!”
“Now we’ve not only got those zombies to worry about, we’ve got a power outage to deal with too!” I shouted as I fumbled around in a nearby toolbox until I found a flashlight.
I turned it on and we went back inside where everyone else was frantically trying to find light sources to see.
“We’ve got problems everyone, there’s a whole mass of zombies out there on the other side of the fence.” I stated in a frantic tone of voice as I grabbed my M16 and other weapons as well as my pack and gear.
“Won’t the fence keep them out?” Melvin asked as he sat on one of the mess hall tables.
“I doubt it now that the power is off—electric fences are worthless without electricity.” I answered as Angie wrapped her arm around my waist in sort of a worried way.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 16
