[Chapter Six: No More Tomorrow]
Over the next several days we started to notice that signs of the undead around the hotel and the part of the city where our hotel was located were vanishing and it greatly troubled us not knowing what was happening with the undead; there also seemed to be an issue of depression setting into many members of the group—myself nor Sheila or Jennifer had fallen victim to this depression thus far and it seemed to only be an isolated issue. I had been having dreams as of late that were flashbacks of the horrific wreck that had killed Angie and I would often find myself waking with a start covered in sweat—Jennifer and Sheila were very supportive knowing that I was still haunted by what had happened only a few months earlier.
“Sometimes it seems so weird knowing how all this shit started and how it has ended up…I am just glad that I have the both of you with me or else I would have went insane already.” I stated as I held the both of them in my arms one morning a few weeks after the first signs of the disappearance of the undead had been noticed.
“We’re glad that we have you too baby.” Jennifer answered as she kissed the side of my face.
“I wonder how long we’ll be safe here in this hotel…” Sheila suddenly stated as she gazed off into space.
“Hopefully long enough to rest up a bit—we’ve been on the move for a long time now.” Jennifer answered in deep thought.
“I know that it’s foolish to just assume that we’re completely safe here just because all of the exits and entrances are blocked off—I mean—it just makes me think back to those things that we saw inside of that pharmaceutical building several weeks back; those were bio-weapons that had been created for a single purpose…to hunt down and kill any survivors left.” I stated as I sat up in bed.
“I’ve been thinking about that too…with everything that we’ve witnessed and out of all the creatures that we’ve had to kill and try and keep from killing us there’s really no telling what else there may be lurking out there.” Jennifer added with a worried expression.
“What worries me is the fact that the undead have seemingly vanished here lately without a trace—before you could always hear ‘the song of the undead’ on the wind wherever we were but now…it’s quiet and it gives me the chills.” Sheila answered as she snuggled closer to me.
“It worries me too baby—we’re going to have to figure out what is happening; if that means going out into the open to do some scouting then that’s just what we’ll have to do.” I answered as I got up out of bed and put my clothes and gear on.
Jennifer and Sheila followed and soon after we got Remy, Mace and Ember up and headed down to the first floor where the lobby was, when we got there we seen that the others were eating breakfast and many of them looked to be distant or melancholy; I grabbed a plate of food for myself as Jennifer and Sheila done the same and we sat down across from Billy and Kayla as well as Morgana and Richard.
“What’s the deal here this morning—everyone looks like they’ve lost hope in survival or something.” I stated glancing around at the group before me.
“I guess it’s just the notion—the idea of possibly being stuck inside of this building for the rest of our lives that’s got many of us down…I mean…I know that we were always in constant danger out on the road but at least we could see stuff—we could step out of the lab truck and feel the wind on our faces; shit…I almost can’t remember what that was like.” Noah answered in deep thought.
“It’s just a little cabin fever—we all need to focus on what we’re doing and what we need to accomplish ahead; I miss the outside too—hell—all I ever get to look at is dark buildings as that balcony view is about as good as a painting.” I answered with a slight chuckle.
“Yeah…you’re right about that…I know that we still have to figure out how to end this shit and try to restore the world.” Melvin answered with a look of deep thought.
“First things first—we need to figure out what is happening with the latest development of the undead vanishing from this area; that’s not normal at all and something has to be causing it.” I stated folding my arms as I finished my food.
“I was thinking the same thing…I’m willing to lead my team out into the areas surrounding this hotel if necessary.” Hugo stated as he stood next to the wall nearby.
“Be extremely careful out there—we don’t know what has happened.” I answered turning to glance his way.
“Don’t worry boss, it’s a real plus now that we’re all immune to infection but we’ll be careful—trust me.” Hugo answered with a grin.
“Yeah, and we’ll take along those walkie-talkies that we found in the security room the other day so that we can keep radio contact.” Amy added as she stood up from the table and stretched.
“Watch your asses out there.” I stated as I got up from the table and tossed my paper plate into the nearby trash can.
“We will—hopefully we can figure out what is going on.” Hugo answered as he grabbed his assault rifle and other gear leading the way out of the dining room.
We all settled in around different places and waited with a sense of dread as the morning soon passed into the afternoon hours—it wasn’t until sometime after 1 pm when then radio receiver sounded with Hugo’s voice.
“Chaz—guys, this is Hugo…come in, over.”
I walked over and picked the receiver up and spoke into it as the others gathered around me.
“This is Chaz, what’s going on out there?” I asked speaking into the receiver.
“We’ve found several corpses and traces of the undead…and we bumped into something that seemed like it had been one of these normal dead-heads at one time.” Hugo’s voice answered with what sounded like worry.
“What do you mean?” I asked raising my right eyebrow.
“It looked like it had mutated a lot more than what had previously been seen—this was no normal fucking zombie…it was almost of the bio-weapon class.” Hugo answered on the other end.
“That’s right—damn thing jumped up onto the top of the ruins of a nearby diner as if it had fuckin’ springs in its feet.” Beau’s voice answered on the other end.
“It jumped…?” I asked as I glanced at Jennifer and Sheila with worry.
“Yeah—those damned jumpers…we’re not sure how many more of them there are around this area but…oh shit—what the hell is that?!” Hugo’s voice shouted on the other end all of a sudden.
His voice was followed by gunfire and static as it sounded like shouting could be heard on the other end.
“Fuck—that doesn’t sound good at all; we may have to go out in the lab truck and rescue them.” I stated turning toward the others.
“That might be the best thing that we can do—whatever is going on out there we can’t afford to lose them to whatever they’re up against.” Noah answered as he and Christina stepped forward.
“There’s no reason for everyone to go out—I’ll drive and only a few others need to come along; the rest of you need to stay here and guard the hotel as well as wait on possible radio contact.” I stated as I headed toward the elevators to go up to our suite to gather my weapons and gear.
“We’ll come with you of course.” Jennifer stated as she and Sheila followed after me.
“We will too.” Richard answered as he and Morgana as well as Billy and Kayla followed.
“Alright—Noah you are in charge here; keep everyone safe.” I answered glancing toward Noah.
“No problem.” Noah answered folding his arms.
We arrived on the top floor of the hotel and went into our suite gathering our weapons and gear as the others done the same, then we all got back into the elevator and went back down stopping in the lobby for a second to leave Remy, Mace and Ember with my parents so they wouldn’t be in any danger; we then proceeded down to the parking garage where the lab truck was waiting.
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�Shit…how are we going to do this with the exit blocked off?” Billy asked as he stared ahead at the barricade that we had made blocking the exit to the garage.
“We’re going to have to move those vehicles we used to create the barricade and it’ll have to be left open so that we can get back in once we find Hugo and the others and get back here.” I answered grimly.
“What about the others—won’t that compromise the security of this place?” Sheila asked with a concerned tone.
“Noah—it’s Chaz, do you read me?” I asked into the radio receiver that I had picked up.
“Yeah, I hear you—what’s up?” Noah’s voice asked on the other end.
“I need a group to come down here to the garage and guard the elevators because we’re going to have to move the barricade blocking the exit and leave it open until we get back.” I answered as I started pacing back and forth.
“Okay, I’ll get a few of the others and we’ll be right down.” Noah answered on his end.
A few minutes later he along with Christina, Melvin, Cedric, my dad, Melody and Kira arrived with their weapons in hand and they came over and looked over the defensive parameter guns that we had set up before.
“We’ll do our best to hold those things off and keep them from breeching the hotel.” Noah stated as he cocked his shotgun and checked his .45 handgun.
“We’ll move the vehicles so you guys can get out.” My dad stated as he and the others ran forward and got into the various vehicles that we had pulled up blocking the exit.
Within several minutes they had them moved out of the way and the exit was clear and I led the few others into the lab truck and started the engine as Noah and the others returned to their defensive positions—I drove out of the parking garage and out into the street as the few others behind me settled in; Jennifer and Sheila sat down close to me as I drove down the street through the wreckage of smashed vehicles and corpses of long dead zombies and victims.
“Some of these corpses that I’m seeing look like dead-heads and it looks like they just toppled over and died for some unknown reason.” I stated as I glanced around the street ahead of us as I drove.
“Could it have been ones that we killed along the way?” Jennifer asked as she placed her left hand on my thigh.
“I don’t know but those corpses are going to stink horribly in this heat that we’ve been having a lot lately.” I answered glancing over at her and Sheila.
“Chaz—come in!” Hugo’s voice boomed over the radio receiver nearby.
Sheila handed it to me and I quickly held down the talk button to reply to him.
“This is Chaz—Hugo, where are you guys?” I asked as my eyes wandered around the street ahead of us as well as each alleyway that we passed.
“We’re pinned down at the front entrance to Central Park—there’s a swarm of these mutated dead-heads that look like they’ve changed into some sort of fucked-up spider things and there’s several of these huge abomination creatures that are tearing up the place; is there any way that you guys can come get us?” Hugo shouted on the other end as we could all hear gunfire and shouting from the others of his team.
“We’re already out and looking for you—is there any way that you can signal to us on your position?” I answered as I glanced around at the dark buildings and structures that we were passing.
“I’ll pop off a red smoke canister…hurry!” Hugo answered as more sounds of shouting and gunfire followed.
It didn’t take us long to clear the buildings and arrive on the edge of Central Park and that was when we saw the smoke—there were dark creatures pouring out of the woods and it looked like several more of the large abomination-like creatures were coming out as well.
“Someone get on that gun torrent up top—we’ve got to try and cap those things or else Hugo and the others are not going to last long enough for us to rescue them.” I shouted as I turned and sped up toward the red smoke as our comrades’ gunfire could now be seen.
Richard pressed the buttons on the panel that Hugo had used before and he climbed up the ladder into the torrent as the mechanical sounds could be heard above, shortly after he opened fire with the .50 caliber guns—we watched as dozens of the creatures were hit by the hail of bullets and torn to pieces and it was no secret that the creatures had now noticed us as several of the creatures that Hugo had mentioned before leapt through the air toward us; luckily Richard seen them and they were blown out of the air by his gunfire. Several of the huge creatures that looked a lot like large, powerful brutes were also mown down by his hail of bullets and that was when we arrived behind Hugo and the others and they raced for the side door and climbed inside—the spot they had been in was overrun by the arachnid-like mutations and the swarms of others; Richard continued to fire away and Hugo shouted to him and seconds later he came down and took a seat as I put my foot to the pedal and sped out of the area with the swarm of creatures not far behind us.
“We’ve got to get those fuckers off of our tail—they’ll overwhelm the hotel defenses if we don’t stop them here and now!” I shouted as I came to a loop in the road and pulled up back around to where we were facing the oncoming tide of mutations which were now being joined by normal dead-heads that were racing out from dark buildings nearby.
“Get back up top—let’s wipe these fucktards from existence!” Hugo shouted as he rushed to the controls for the rocket pods and hit them quickly.
Richard nodded and climbed back up into the torrent shortly after opening fire with the .50 guns again as dozens of rockets soared out of both of the pods on the top front of our lab truck and flew down exploding at the front of the undead horde causing massive explosions of not only the rockets but nearby vehicles that still had fuel inside of them—it looked like the explosions had hit a gas line as well because there was a brilliant explosion that caused us all to have to shield our eyes as the force of the blast was so great that several of the nearby moderately tall buildings crumbled and came crashing down on the area where the initial explosions had taken place. I turned us around and sped away toward the hotel that was about a half mile away as smoke, dust and fire could be seen spreading out behind us.
“That had to have obliterated all of those things…there’s no way that they could have survived that.” Billy stated as he and Kayla sat together behind us.
“I sure as hell hope so—if a horde of those things that size sniffs out our hideout at the hotel we will be overrun and forced to flee.” I answered staring ahead at the road in deep thought.
We arrived back at the hotel and I drove the lab truck down into the sublevel garage where the others were waiting to block off the exit once again with the various vehicles—which they quickly done and as I parked the lab truck and we all got out I glanced around the area and noticed several bodies that hadn’t been there previously; by the look of them I could tell that some of them were dead-heads that hadn’t yet mutated.
“It’s good to see that you found them and made it back here in one piece—several of those things came in here not long after you guys left and we were forced to defend this position.” Noah stated as he patted my shoulder before motioning to the corpses here and there around the area.
“We heard a loud explosion not far off—what happened out there?” Kira asked as she and the others gathered around us.
“We were being chased by a horde of those mutated fuckers and the only way we knew of to keep them from following us here and breeching our hotel was to hit them pretty much with everything we had; we launched rockets at them that triggered gas line explosions around the area which then caused at least two large buildings to crumble and topple over on top of the undead horde.” I explained as I led the way to the elevators.
We all arrived on the first floor and proceeded to the dining room where all of the others were waiting, that was when I noticed that the lights in the room were dimming—it was the s
ame in every other area of the hotel we soon discovered and the notion that we might soon be in total darkness quickly set into all of our minds.
“That explosion must have weakened the stability of the power grid in this area…I guess that it’s a miracle in the first place that we even had power here the start with.” I stated with a troubled look.
“So what are we going to do?” My mom asked with a worried expression.
“We won’t be able to cook or anything if we lose the electricity.” She continued as she stood close to my dad.
“I think that we all need to slow down for a minute and remember all of the times that we were on the road and survived with only the things we had—we didn’t have kitchens, dining rooms and fancy-ass beds; all we had was what we were lucky enough to find at the time.” I stated stepping into the center of the group.
“Yeah…but at least then we didn’t have the idea of having something ripped away at any given moment.” Melvin answered grimly.
“I think that everyone has gotten a little too fucking soft here as of late—we’ve grown to depend on this barricaded fortress and it’s made us weak.” I shouted as I walked around looking each member of the group over closely.
“Chaz—kindly don’t use those words; you know that I don’t care for them.” My dad stated glaring at me.
“Listen up…dad…you may be my father and all that and that’s fine—but I am in charge of keeping everyone that I care about alive and I will do whatever I have to do to accomplish that; so you don’t approve of my usage of language—big deal.” I answered as I walked over toward him.
“I’m warning you…” My dad started to say.
“Warning me?”
“Don’t fucking threaten me—I’m not a kid anymore and I sure as hell am not going to cower like one now!” I retorted as beads of sweat started to form on my forehead.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 26
