[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “We were able to load up enough weapons and ammo into the mobile lab thing.” Noah stated as he hugged Christina.

  “That’s right—now that this has happened, and due to the fact that we are no longer safe here I say we get into the mobile lab and get the hell away from here.” I stated as I turned and walked toward the door with Angie at my side carrying her weapons, gear and our daughters with her.

  “Good idea—let’s go before those damned zombies get in here.” Kira said as she grabbed her weapons and gear.

  We all filed out of the compound and into the mobile lab vehicle and I got into the driver’s seat with Angie beside of me in the passenger’s seat while Jennifer sat directly behind me staying as close to me as she could. I started it up and drove it out of the garage and through the lot—the rain was still coming down very hard, so I turned the windshield wipers on. No more had I gotten past the front guard house and halfway through the front gate knocking it open when a whole mass of zombies surrounded the truck and started beating at the sides.

  “They can’t get in here can they?” Yvonne asked with worry in her voice.

  “No—the door is electronically locked from in here.” Noah answered as he stood near the window to the door flipping off zombies that would stare into the truck as we drove through the hordes.

  I shifted gears and put my foot to the pedal running several of the zombies in front of us completely over until we were on the highway headed north.

  “Where are we going to go now?” Christina asked as Noah came over and sat down next to her.

  “I was thinking we might head north to Kansas and see if there are any survivors there.” I answered not really paying much attention to her.

  I drove on into the night and before long most of the rain had subsided and now it would only occasionally flash lightening off to the south, I drove most of the night on up until around 3:38 AM the next morning when Noah offered to take over for me while I crawled back and found a place with Angie, Jennifer, Remy and Mace in a pile of blankets they had made on the floor of the lab truck. I drifted off to sleep and had a number of odd dreams before waking up the next morning to see bright blue sky through the windshield of the truck; Angie was already awake and she was feeding Remy and Mace, she smiled at me and we kissed as I rose from the floor with somewhat of a backache—Jennifer rose next to me and gave me a passionate kiss before stretching her arms over her head.

  “Where are we Noah?” I asked as I turned to gaze his way.

  “We just crossed the Kansas state line, according to this roadmap Christina found in the glove box—we’re getting close to a town called Wellington.” Noah answered as he turned for a second to look my way.

  “Hopefully we can find a safe place to pull this thing into so we can study that sample.” I stated with a frown as I stood with some effort and stretched.

  “I hope that that Entity thing isn’t around when we stop.” Angie stated as he fed our daughters a jar of Gerber peas from out of her pack.

  I took over driving and Angie got in the seat next to me with Remy in her lap while Jennifer held Mace and played with her, we pulled into the medium sized town of Wellington, Kansas around 12:30 that day. Bodies were everywhere; some were laying in tall grass where all you could see was the blood and the carrion birds picking at them, there were burned out and burning cars all over the place—I seen a nearby overpass and pulled our truck underneath it and stopped.

  “We should be safe under here hopefully—let’s see what the computer in this lab will tell us about that sample.” I said as I got up from the driver’s seat and went back into the lab with Angie and Jennifer behind me.

  I sat down in front of the computer and put the sample inside the scanning port letting it scan the sample before I started pressing keys, then the computer started listing out the components of the antitoxin sample 3.

  “I don’t recognize any of these components…there’s no way that this sample could be duplicated unless the person doing it knew what this shit means.” I said in an annoyed way.

  “Dude…this radar is picking up something coming our way—whatever it is—it’s big!” Melvin said from towards the back where he was looking at a radar screen.

  “Damn it!”

  “What if it’s that monster?” Cedric shouted in a frantic tone as he ran to the nearest window to stare out of it.

  “I don’t think it is…according to the radar—it has a serial number…weird.” Melvin answered as he leaned forward and stared at the screen.

  “What the hell is it?” Kira asked as he held her weapons in a ready combat position.

  Suddenly a flaming small commercial plane came flying out of the sky just above the overpass like a bat out of hell and hit a gas station down the street causing a huge explosion.

  “Son of a bitch…where did that plane come from?” Noah said looking out the windshield with shock.

  No more had he spoken when a person suddenly came down ahead of us with a parachute almost tangled up around them; they hit the pavement pretty hard and I unlocked the side door to our truck and led the way outside with my M16 ready. The person was kind of small and short and after helping them up, I seen that it was a woman.

  “Who are you?” I asked as she was still trying to remove her goggles.

  Once she had them off she glanced around at us with a dazed and confused look on her face.

  “Did you jump out of that plane just now?” I asked again in amazement.

  “Y-Yeah…I had to jump, didn’t have any other choice.” She answered with a pained expression as she struggled to get herself completely free of the parachute.

  “Who are you?” Angie asked as she and Jennifer both came to my side.

  “My name is Destiny Olsen…I’m from Dalton, Georgia” She answered after she had seemed to have gotten free from the parachute.

  “Why are you way out here—you said something about having to jump from that plane that crashed over there?” Noah asked motioning to the burning ruins several thousand feet ahead of us.

  “Yeah, I was riding in the passenger seat next to the pilot. I was trying to get away from Georgia because that is where zombies killed my family. Everything was going fine until this big…thing…just came out of nowhere and attacked the plane; the pilot tried to avoid whatever it was that was attacking us—next thing I know—I looked over at him and his damn head had been ripped off…” Destiny explained in a traumatized tone.

  “What happened next?” I asked as I folded my arms.

  “Well…I tried to control the plane by taking hold of the controls but it was already severely damaged, so I strapped on one of the parachutes that were in the back and I jumped out.” Destiny finished as she glanced around at us and at the area she was now standing in.

  “Damn it—that sounds like it was the Entity that attacked you up there!” Noah exclaimed in a worried yet aggravated tone.

  “Entity?”

  “What entity—what the hell are you talking about?” Destiny asked as she turned to look his way.

  “It’s a long story—you’d be safer to come with us, let’s get the hell out of here before that thing attacks us too!” I shouted leading the way back inside the truck.

  “Cool—where did you get this thing?” Destiny asked after we had all gotten inside of the lab truck.

  “As exciting as this big rig looks—this isn’t a joyride, I assure you of that. We’ve been living and surviving on the road and out in the open ever since this whole mess started in October of 2000. We know things—we have information about a person named Nicolas Bowman who is namely the one solely responsible for all this shit. That thing that attacked you has attacked us as well and it’s been tracking us somehow; it was some kind of sick little pet science project that they cooked up down in that lab.” I explained as I showed her several of the documents we had found before.


  “Hey Chaz, the computer just said something about “Thistle Project Guardian Unit # 228-71666.” Melvin said as he gazed at the computer screen that was still showing the scanned info from the sample.

  “Thistle Project…seems that’s what that last fax that Bowman left behind said at the very bottom of the page.” I said scratching my chin.

  “There’s a file labeled ‘Entity #228-71666’…should I open it?” Melvin asked as he turned to look my way waiting for approval.

  “All that came up from the sample scan?” I asked walking over to look at the screen.

  “Chaz—should I get on the interstate going north or what?” Noah asked from the driver’s seat as we were nearing a ramp to get onto the highway.

  “Yeah—and step on it, that damned thing can’t be too far behind.” I answered as I turned to look his way briefly before glancing back at the computer screen.

  Melvin opened the file and we both watched in awe as sort of a blueprint of the thing came onto the screen.

  “Biological Weapon of massive size with the counter ability to regenerate and mutate according to the climate around it, was first engineered by blending the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin with genes of a praying mantis as well as a tarantula; first results were somewhat unstable and more genes were later added—genes of a chameleon and of a man. These results proved to be more stable as the specimen took on a character-like persona and seemed to mutate more and more due to the large amounts of the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin used in its cerebellum and cerebral cortex. Many lab workers lost their lives upon the completion of this ‘Entity’ and were soon after used in experiments that turned them into flesh-eating monsters themselves. Dr. Bowman and Dr. Conner grafted in a few hidden surprises with their new creation giving it superior agility and stamina as well as a hidden rocket launcher inside one of its limbs.” I read aloud from the screen.

  “Damn it…this shit just keeps getting better and better.” Melvin stated in a sarcastic tone.

  I scrolled down and read the next section as just about everyone else minus Noah and Christina who were in the front driving gathered around the computer.

  “The Entity was thought to be prone to radiation, but it would take an extremely high amount to do any real damage to its outer shell.” I read aloud.

  “Radiation…” Cedric said aloud in a gruff tone.

  “That might be our ticket to killing that damn thing once and for all.” I stated getting up out of the chair that I had been sitting in next to Melvin.

  “But how are we going to subject it to radiation—first of all, where do we find enough of it to even hurt the son of a bitch?” Kira asked in a skeptical tone.

  “I’m thinking that we lure it into a nuclear power plant, trap it inside somehow and set a bomb to go off in a certain amount of time—long enough for us to get the hell out of there.” I answered in deep thought.

  “But how the hell are we going to lure it?” Noah asked from the driver’s seat.

  “He’s right—this thing is smart—it’s bound to know that we’re up to something.” Melvin stated as he turned to look my way.

  “All we can do is take the chance, either way—we stand to lose everything even our lives, especially if we continue to just run and don’t do anything about it. At least this plan gives us a 50/50 chance of surviving, once the Entity is out of the way all we’ll really have to worry about is the zombies and I sure as hell would rather fight them then some big-ass mutated freak that stalks us everywhere we go.” I stated as I walked back to the seat where Angie and Jennifer were waiting for me.

  “I’m with Chaz—I say we lure this big ugly bastard into a nuclear power plant, trap it inside and blow the damn thing right straight to hell.” Angie shouted with a scowl.

  “Okay—since that’s our best plan on destroying this thing we’ll do it…but how far away is the nearest nuclear power plant?” Cedric asked as he took out a small road atlas from his bag and looked it over.

  “I’m not sure where the others are around the country, but I do remember that there’s one north of Chattanooga, Tennessee—we can travel there and use it to trap the Entity.” I answered as glanced at him.

  “Dude…that’s a hell of a long ways away, we better make haste and get there as soon as we can.” Melvin said as he came running back up to where the rest of us were and plopped down in his seat.

  “Right—we’ve got enough weapons, fuel and supplies since we were at the military compound, so we won’t have to be making any dangerous and risky stops at gun stores along the way…the only thing I think we’ll have a problem with is our food supply; We’re going to have to stop somewhere and load enough food into this truck to last us awhile before heading to the destination.” I stated in a pleased tone of voice.

  “Chaz—the next big city we’ll come to is Wichita, then we take the 35 and then the 335 straight into Topeka—cut east and that’ll take us to Kansas City.” Christina said as she read off the road atlas.

  “Right, that’s the plan. Let’s get going and get to where we need to go as quickly as possible. We’ll stop in Wichita to stock up the trailer with food; we’ve got a bathroom and shower back there—if we need to, we can get a small refrigerator and put it back there too.” I stated as Angie, Jennifer and I sat down arm in arm on the floor behind the driver’s seat.

  “This thing is safe isn’t it baby?” Angie asked resting her head on my shoulder.

  “Yes—it’s supposed to be able to withstand mortar fire as well as tank shells, so I wouldn’t worry.” I answered kissing her forehead.

  “It feels like we’re at war…no matter where we go it’s always like this.” Angie said looking down at the floor in deep thought.

  “Baby, it’s true that we are at war—we’re fighting for our right to exist in this world, Bowman and those other assholes that followed him in creating this whole nightmare are to blame for everything that has happened. Some people are just too stupid or too full of hate to see past their own little worlds; Bowman wanted to bring down the world—for all we know he may even want to rule over it, but because of everything that’s happened, all he’s going to be ruling over is a ruin.” I said stroking her hair.

  “I think we should find him and kill him—make him pay dearly for everything that he has taken away from us and the world.” Angie stated as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

  “We will find him baby—I promise you that, and when we do—he is going to pay for his crimes.” I assured her.

  “It’s because of him that our son or daughter will have to live in this nightmare along with Remy and Mace.” Angie said in a disgusted tone.

  “You mean that you’re pregnant?” I asked as a sly smile came to my face.

  “Yeah…about eight and a half months now, I would have told you but with everything that’s been going on…” Angie said hiding her face.

  “Baby—I knew you were, and I’m glad that you are. Don’t be ashamed that you weren’t able to tell me.” I answered bringing her lips to mine in a passionate kiss.

  “Baby—I want you to try and stay here in this truck with the others who don’t fight so much, my parents will help you and keep you safe. Do that for me at least until after our baby is born.” I said looking deep into her eyes.

  “Okay, I promise.” Angie answered as she buried her head in my shirt.

  “Chaz?” Angie said suddenly.

  “Yeah baby?” I asked.

  “I just had a really sharp contraction…I think it might be time!” Angie said grimacing in pain.

  “Hey Mom—guys, help me out here, Angie is in labor!” I shouted as I helped her up and into the rear trailer to the stretcher that was back there.

  My mom helped by getting towels and blankets out of the small bathroom as well as hot water and things went rather smoothly and after around two and a half hours of labor, Angie gave birth to a healthy baby gi
rl; she was a little early in her coming but she was completely developed and healthy as a horse so to speak—she had a slight auburn color hair and she looked like Angie in the face.

  “Well baby, what should we name her?” I asked as I sat beside of the stretcher with Angie’s left hand in mine as she held onto our new daughter.

  “Let’s name her Ember.” Angie answered with a pleased grin.

  “That sounds great baby.” I said as I bent down and kissed both Angie as well as my new daughter before sharing a deep kiss with Jennifer who whispered into my ear saying that she wanted me inside of her.

  I kissed her passionately and then we both shared kisses with Angie before taking turns holding Ember; Remy and Mace were both still young themselves, but she seemed to sense that this was a happy time. A short time later, Melvin and Cedric came back to see Angie as well as Ember and the others came as well; Jennifer and I saw the others out of the rear of the trailer before locking the door—I glanced at Angie and she smiled and nodded.

  “Go ahead baby—you guys have fun, I’m gonna rest a bit.” Angie stated with a smile as she leaned up kissing me and then Jennifer.

  I wrapped my arms around Jennifer’s waist and cupped my hands to her firm little ass squeezing it tightly as she kissed me probing my mouth with her small, slender tongue; it only took seconds to unbuckle her belt, unbutton her jeans and then pull them off of her until she was in her black thong panties—I continued to kiss her as she stripped the clothes off of me until my cock was sticking out hard and ready and then she slipped them off as she climbed up onto a nearby metal table spreading her legs. I embraced her tightly pushing into her and we made love like that for at least ten minutes before I felt myself cum inside of her—we continued to kiss as we both walked over to Angie and kissed her as well before getting our clothes back on. It wasn’t long before we arrived in Wichita and Noah found a massive grocery store, I declared that I was staying with Angie and my two kids while Noah and Melvin were in charge of gathering the food supplies from inside while a number of the others including Destiny, Kira and Jennifer stayed in or outside the electronic door on guard. Everything seemed to be running smoothly and before I knew what was hardly going on, the back door to the trailer opened and Noah and the others came in and loaded the food supplies inside; they also brought in a hotplate that could be used to cook our food on and several Coleman coolers to serve as cold storage until we were able to get a fridge. Melvin brought over several bags of ice he had gotten out of a nearby machine and poured the ice into the coolers. After everything was loaded up, the back door was closed again and sealed electronically from the inside and it didn’t take us long to get out of Wichita due to the fact that it was swarming with zombies on just about every street; some of them were even eating bodies of other zombies that we had killed while stocking up on food. Noah was doing all the driving while Jennifer and I were taking care of Angie and Ember, I would go to check on the location every now and then, we were now on the 35 going northeast in the direction of Topeka; Angie was doing well and she could move around, which was kind of surprising after just having a baby—we were up in the cab with our three daughters and everyone else when we came to a spot in the highway that was littered with wrecked and smashed up vehicles and bodies were all over the road in pools of dry, stagnated blood.