“Let’s kill this damned thing once and for all!” I shouted as I gripped my M16 and led my group back toward the Entity EX firing on it as the strangers done the same.
Blood was pouring out of the creature as each bullet tore massive holes through its’ body and that was when one of the male figures who had appeared shouted into a CB radio to someone—I glanced off to the right toward the end of the street as a loud noise got our attention; headlights of a large vehicle could be seen as whatever it was sped toward the Entity EX at high speed. We all fell back away from the scene as did the other strangers as the vehicle was now almost on the creature—I seen the driver’s side door of the vehicle open which I could now tell was a massive semi rig and a man jumped out hitting the pavement with a thud as the truck continued speeding toward the Entity EX; seconds later it plowed into the creature and exploded lighting up the night and the area in a brilliant fire cloud as the remains of the truck burned out of control.
“Wow…I wonder if that killed it.” Jennifer stated squeezing my left hand tightly.
“I don’t know…but if not I’ll be very surprised.” I answered as the strangers soon after approached us.
There were three of them who were dressed in tactical military-looking outfits and something seemed familiar about them—there were two females and a man who looked Spanish or Latin one; I could see three more people in the background that looked like they were with these three—one of them was the man who had jumped out of the semi before it had crashed into the Entity EX and the other two were women.
“Beau…it’s good to see you again.” The Spanish man stated as he and the others approached us.
“Hugo…Amy and Desiree—wow—I am pleased to see that you are still alive and kicking.” Beau answered hugging the three of them.
“You too—it looks like you found other survivors and by the looks of them they know how to handle themselves well.” The Spanish man that Beau had identified as Hugo stated as he approached me and held out his gloved hand for a handshake.
“My name is Chaz Watkins—these are my girlfriends Jennifer and Sheila; these are my friends and family.” I introduced as I shook his hand and then motioned to my group.
“Pleased to meet you all—my name is Hugo Rodriguez, these are my comrades Amy Smith and Desiree Jordan…we’re all that’s left of Covenant One.” He stated with a sad smile.
“It’s nice to meet you guys—Beau has told us in detail about things that happened with your group back in Oklahoma City.” I stated as I glanced toward the three other people who were now starting to approach us.
I thought the man who had dove out of the semi looked familiar but I couldn’t tell and it wasn’t until the three of them arrived before us that I recognized him—he was someone that I hadn’t seen in many years, not since back in high school; it was my old friend Richard Barrett.
“Hey Chaz—I thought that looked like you but I couldn’t believe my eyes at first; what are you doing all the way up here?” Richard asked as the two of us embraced in a hug.
“We’re on our way to New York City—Brooklyn to be exact…we’re trying to find some scientists or doctors that might still be alive because we have an antitoxin sample.” I answered with a smile.
“You mean that you guys succeeded in obtaining the sample?” Hugo asked with a surprised look on his face.
“Yeah—that’s pretty much why we’ve had that damned monster after us this whole time and we’ve lost some good friends along the way.” I answered with a distant look.
“Then you can all count on our help getting there—it’s what Covenant One was trying to accomplish from the start.” Hugo answered folding his arms.
“Who are the others with you?” Noah asked turning toward the two women nearby.
“These are two ladies that we found hiding out in an old gas station outside of a small town in Maryland called La Plata—we had to fight through a mob of around fifty or sixty of those damned dead-heads to get to them.” Hugo answered glancing at them.
“Hi—my name is Morgana Price, I’m originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; this is my friend Kayla.” The first woman stated—she was an attractive brunette with short hair that was cut into a bob style.
“My name is Kayla Smith—I’m from Miami, Florida.” The second woman who had shoulder length medium brown hair stated with a warm smile.
I introduced each member of my group and then we all got into a group facing the burning remains of the semi where the Entity EX had been—there hadn’t been any more movement from the creature since the catastrophic explosion that had leveled it and I knew that we were all hoping and praying that it was finally dead.
“Is it dead I wonder?” Noah asked as Christina clung to him while holding their son Jude’s hand.
“Let me check…” Desiree answered as she took out some sort of electronic scanning device and walked over toward the roaring blaze where she stopped a few feet from it.
A few seconds later she turned and came back to the group and looked at me in particular.
“The creature is dead.” She stated with a pleased look.
“Thank God…now we’ve just got to figure out how we’re going to continue on to our destination now that we’ve lost the lab truck.” Sheila stated with a worried expression.
“We’ve got another one, well—one that is similar in a lot of ways; we found it near a destroyed military convoy outside of Columbus, Ohio.” Hugo stated as he turned and motioned toward the alley where they had first come from.
“How well stocked are you?” I asked raising my right eyebrow.
“Well enough—we’ve got two auxiliary trailers that we’ve got hitched to the back; one is for personal hygiene as well as storage and the other is a sleeping area.” Amy answered as they all turned and started leading us toward their truck.
When we arrived outside of the lab truck we seen that it was a lot like ours had been, except that it was painted an army green color and had visible weapons on the top sides and what looked like the top and it was pulling two trailers instead of just one like ours had; we all climbed inside and seen that there was plenty of space for everyone to sit as well as places for weapons and supplies to be kept—the new people turned to me and the rest of my group did as well.
“You are clearly your group’s leader so we will follow you—this mobile lab truck is now yours.” Hugo stated folding his arms.
“I appreciate that…okay guys…we’re heading to New York City to find a pharmaceutical company somewhere in Brooklyn that might possibly have surviving doctors or scientists who can analyze the sample and hopefully derive a cure from it—one that will end this mess and get the human race back on its feet.” I stated as I looked over each member of my group closely.
Moral seemed high as I got into the driver’s seat and started the engine while Jennifer and Sheila sat next to me—Sheila in the floor between us while Jennifer sat in the seat beside of her looking over the road atlas; everyone else settled in behind us and I got us underway and soon we were leaving the alleyway and heading out toward the bridge across the river. That was when a horde of undead appeared from the woods and swarmed around the outside of the truck—there were so many of them that they were climbing over each other trying to get up over the front windshield.
“Shit—those fuckers are thick as butter out there; hang on—I’ll take care of this.” Hugo stated as he pressed several buttons on a side wall panel and then looked up toward the roof hatch as a loud mechanical noise could be heard.
He climbed up the steel-rung ladder and waited a few seconds as the hatch popped open and then he climbed up into a sitting position inside of a machine gun torrent and he started firing away; we could all hear the empty shell casings hitting the roof of the truck as well as the ground as the powerful guns cut down waves of undead that were swarming out of the woods toward us from off to the
right. I waited until I heard the guns cease firing for a minute and then Hugo yelled down for me to drive through the mass of the dead-heads that were piling up against the front of the lab truck—I put the truck into gear and put my foot to the pedal as I smashed through the hordes of creatures that were in front of me; the guns up above opened fire again and didn’t stop until we were on the other side of the bridge—that was when the roof hatch opened and Hugo came back down as the torrent locked back into place above us.
“Watch this, guys.” He said as he came over to the front control panel near Jennifer and pressed a few buttons as a joystick looking control lever popped up out of the console.
There was another mechanical sound and seconds later several rockets fired from somewhere on the top sides of the lab truck and soared over hitting the bridge exploding causing the whole thing to collapse and fall into the river below along with hundreds of the zombies that had been racing toward us.
“Wow—this baby’s got some advantages over the one we had.” Noah stated with an amazed expression.
“Yeah—that’s for damn sure; we shouldn’t have to hunt for any more vehicles anytime soon at least.” I stated with a smile as both Jennifer and Sheila kissed me.
I started out driving again and soon made it back to the interstate that we had been using earlier before having been forced to take the detour due to the destroyed bridge, I drove for the next six hours until I was exhausted and by that time we were getting really close to Jersey City—I could already see the dark outlines of the tall buildings of New York City across the bay.
“Whoever wants to take over driving can, I’m going to get some sleep.” I stated as I stopped along the roadway and got up from the driver’s seat.
“I’ll drive for a while.” Billy answered as he and Kayla stepped up toward me.
It looked like the two of them had been getting close and I nodded and turned toward Jennifer and Sheila who gathered Remy, Mace and Ember and followed me toward the very back trailer.
“Across the Brooklyn Bridge—right?” Billy called from the front.
“Yeah—see if you can’t find a pharmaceutical company.” I answered turning back to face him in the front.
“I’ll help him—I’m hoping that the one near where I grew up will be safe and still in operation.” Noah answered as he went to the front and sat behind Billy.
I nodded and turned back to head toward the sleeping quarters in the very back, once we were back there we seen that there were four bunk beds bolted down against both sides of the trailer and I glanced at Jennifer and Sheila with a skeptical look.
“These are twin sized matrices…do you think that we’ll all fit?” I asked raising my right eyebrow as they both kissed me.
“No problem baby.” Jennifer answered as she nodded at Sheila.
Soon after they put Remy, Mace and Ember to sleep and joined me under the covers of the bed on the right side and I wrapped both of my arms around them as I lay in the middle with Sheila on my left side and Jennifer on my right; it didn’t take us long to fall asleep and I awoke several hours later to the sound of Sheila’s voice.
“Baby—my brother is asking for you to come to the front.” She stated as she kissed my eyelids.
I got up after a few seconds and got my clothes and gear back on, then I led the way back into the lab truck as Jennifer and Sheila followed with my daughters; once I got to the front I seen that we were actually passing through the densely cluttered streets of downtown New York City—we had made it to our destination and now all of our hopes rested on the notion of hopefully finding someone who could use the antitoxin sample that we had gotten to rid the world of Nicolas Bowman’s plague.
“I sure hope that we can find someone who can create a cure…so many of our friends have given their lives for this.” I stated as I took out the sample and stared at the clear liquid inside of the sealed vial.
“I hope so too…but in the off chance that we don’t find any survivors at our destination then there should be equipment to use the sample to synthesize a cure from it.” Noah answered as he glanced at me.
“Unfortunately none of us know how to do that…so we’re royally fucked if we get there and find it as dead as the rest of the world.” I answered with a dark look.
“I have some knowledge of chemistry and biological components…I could try to give it a shot if all else fails.” Amy stated as she came to the front of the truck looking out the windshield as we continued through the streets avoiding wrecked and burned out vehicles as we went.
“It’s just a little bit farther straight ahead.” Noah stated after several more minutes had passed.
We were now pulling up in front of a massive building that rose high into the sky—on the more than half-destroyed sign was the name Hudson Pharmaceutical Corp. and Noah pointed wildly toward the entrance of the building as Billy pulled us up almost to the stone steps leading up to the doors.
“This is it guys…” Noah stated as he turned and glanced toward us.
I led the way out of the lab truck with my M16 ready—I knew that there could be hundreds, maybe thousands of undead all around us just waiting for the scent of blood but as I led the way up the steps with everyone else close behind I saw no signs of the undead whatsoever and it greatly worried me; I led the way to the double doors and pushed them open with some effort—once we were all inside of the front area it looked like people had been inside of this building and tried to barricade the doors.
“This place is in shambles…I guess we better start by searching each room on this first floor.” I stated with a troubled look as I gripped my assault rifle and pushed through the debris that littered the area.
“Damn…did some sort of incident happen in here?” Hugo asked as he stood gazing at bullet holes that were all over the walls.
Just below that were splotches of dried blood and as we got further into the structure we started noticing that the blood was getting thicker and that was when we stumbled upon several rotting corpses that were slumped over on the floor—there was even a corpse of a young male researcher that had somehow been smashed into the concrete wall; the body was inside of a small hollowed out cranny that whatever impact that killed him had made.
“I’m getting the feeling that we’re not going to be finding any living doctors or scientists in this place…undead ones maybe but I don’t have a good feeling about this.” Sheila stated as she nervously clutched her .45 caliber handgun tightly.
“You could very well be right about that—we need to locate some sort of layout of this place to where we can find a place to synthesize a cure from the sample if necessary.” I answered as I hugged her and Jennifer reassuringly.
It was only seconds later when Noah and Christina called my attention to a blood-splattered directory hanging on a nearby wall that showed the entire layout of the building; I took out a handkerchief and wiped the blood and gore off of the surface of the floor plan so we could read it better.
“It looks like this place has nine floors…that’s gonna be a bitch to have to climb because I doubt this place has any electricity for the elevators to work.” Melvin stated as he glanced around at the dim and dark area around us.
“I say that we should find a way to create a cure from the sample and get the hell out of this place…I’m getting a really bad feeling.” Beau stated as he walked to the doorway to what appeared to be a hallway.
“I agree with him—this place feels wrong…like there’s something here.” Desiree added as they came up to the main part of the group.
“Okay…it says here that there’s a Vaccination Research & Development Lab on the second floor—we should be able to use the equipment there to try and synthesize a cure.” I stated as I pointed to a location on the layout before us.
Everyone gripped their weapons and gear before turning toward a nearby set of doors that were labeled as the
stairwell, that was when Hugo and Amy stepped to the side and opened a large cabinet taking out over two dozen moderately small items and then turning toward me.
“We should wear these gas masks—there’s no telling what sort of toxic fumes could be in this air.” He stated as he tossed one to me and then gave one to each member of the group.
“Good idea—let’s hurry and get this done so we can leave; I honestly don’t think that we’re going to find a soul here.” I answered as I slipped on my gas mask and then helped Jennifer and Sheila with theirs.
There were enough for Remy, Mace and Ember as well as Jude and once everyone was geared up and ready, I led the way toward the door marked stairwell and I carefully opened it and peered inside—it was dark and empty and the steel stairs led up into the next levels above us.
“Good thing we acquired these awhile back.” Noah stated as he took out a powerful UV lamp that he and Christina had picked up months before on one of our many stops.
The light from the UV lamp helped and we pressed on up the stairs slowly and cautiously until we were at the second floor doorway that would lead us into the main complex of rooms; Noah passed the lamp to Christina who held it pointed straight ahead as he took out his shotgun and cocked it—I swiftly opened the doors and we looked around at the room before us.
“This looks like some sort of Researcher’s area—we should be getting close to the Vaccination Research & Development Lab.” I stated as I led the way through the dark recesses of the room.
“Dude—even if we find a place to create a cure none of this shit is gonna work without power.” Billy stated from behind me.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 23
