[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “Baby—let’s just go back up and cool down for a while.” Jennifer said as she and Sheila wrapped their arms around me.

  With that said the three of us gathered up Remy, Mace and Ember and left the dining room getting into the elevators going up to our top floor suite, once we were inside Jennifer and Sheila put the girls to sleep and I stepped out onto the balcony as rain started to fall from the black sky above; they stepped out with me soon after and I stood there in deep thought as they wrapped their arms around me.

  “I’m sorry about what happened down there between you and your dad.” Sheila stated as she rested her head on my left shoulder.

  “Yeah…in all this time that I’ve been with you I kind of had a suspicion that there were old hostilities between the two of you but I’ve never seen it until now.” Jennifer added as she kissed the right side of my face tenderly.

  “My father doesn’t approve of the way I do things, the way I talk or anything else—he thinks that I ought to be this goody-goody little two-shoes and follow his every command…that’s how it was when I was a kid and sadly it’s not changed one bit.” I stated in deep thought as I stared ahead at the blank, dark building in front of us.

  The rain was really coming down now and it was soaking through my hair and my shirt making me shiver—this was a cold rain and though it was summer time I knew that it wasn’t uncommon; I wrapped my arms around Jennifer and Sheila and stepped back into the suite closing and locking the glass doors behind me. I led the way into the good sized bathroom where the Jacuzzi tub was and I turned on the water making sure that it wasn’t too hot letting it fill as I removed my clothes—Jennifer and Sheila done the same and when I brought them both into my arms I could see the baby bump starting to form on Jennifer and I smiled and our lips met; I turned to Sheila and placed my right hand on her stomach as well—our lips met and I kissed each of them exploring their mouths with my tongue. This led to us making love right there on the bathroom floor and after an hour of extended lovemaking I had come in both of them and we got into the hot, inviting waters of the tub as it was now completely full; I stretched back relaxing as Jennifer settled on my right side and Sheila on my left.

  “The others are losing hope…I can tell by their expressions and the way they have been talking lately; even though we succeeded in synthesizing a vaccine from the antitoxin sample we had to do it all on our own—we didn’t find any surviving doctors or anyone here in New York like we had been hoping we would.” I stated in deep thought.

  “Yeah…I’ve also heard a few of the others talking and it sounds like they are even starting to question the idea of us even continuing on—it sounded almost like they are on the verge of giving up and dying.” Jennifer stated as she rested her head on my shoulder.

  “I’ve noticed that too…” Sheila answered with a look of sadness.

  “Well, we’re just going to have to set everyone straight—nobody is just gonna give up and die on my watch; not after everything that we have been through to make it this far.” I stated with a determined tone.

  We finished our bath and then got out drying ourselves off and then retiring to bed where we fell asleep soon afterward; the night seemed to pass by rather quickly and soon it was morning as the sun shined brightly through the glass doors of the balcony—I was awake but rubbing the sleep out of my eyes when I started hearing a sound from outside on the balcony. Sitting up in bed quickly I stared out onto the balcony with a sense of dread as the sounds got louder and louder—that was when a horrible face suddenly came into view as what seemed like a zombie climbed up the side of the balcony railing and pulled itself over the top landing on the balcony with a thud; the creature’s body was covered with some sort of blackish goop that was sticky and strong—obviously what it had used to climb up the side of the building with. I quickly got up and grabbed my magnum from the side table beside of the bed and I walked over to the glass doors unlocking and opening them swiftly before pointing my gun at the zombie’ head—I squeezed the trigger once, twice and then a third time firing rounds that hit the zombie in the head sending it flying backward over the edge of the balcony railing where it fell to the street below.

  Jennifer and Sheila jumped awake from the bed behind me and quickly came running to my side as I stood looking over the railing, I could also hear Remy, Mace and Ember crying in their room behind us as well as running feet that sounded like they were nearing our suite door. I turned and led the way back into the bedroom where the three of us got dressed quickly as someone appeared at the outside of our door and started knocking.

  “Chaz—are you guys okay in there?” Billy’s voice shouted from the other side of the door.

  We finished getting dressed and headed for the door and I opened it to see that Billy, Kayla, Richard, Morgana and several of the others were standing there with concerned looks on their faces.

  “It was a zombie but not like one I have ever seen—the damned thing had some sort of sticky shit that it used to climb up the side of this building.” I answered as I turned and stepped back into our suite.

  Jennifer and Sheila followed and they went to check on the girls as Billy and the others gathered around me in the bedroom.

  “Must be one of those new mutations…I’m getting the feeling that this place isn’t going to be safe for much longer—if those things can now scale the sides of this building and infiltrate our sleeping areas then we’re definitely going to have to leave soon.” Richard stated with a look of worry.

  “Yeah, the same thought had just crossed my mind as well—we better go tell the others about this and figure something out.” I answered as Jennifer and Sheila joined us in the bedroom with Remy, Mace and Ember.

  We gathered our weapons and gear and we left our suite headed toward the elevator going down—after a few minutes we met up with everyone else in the first floor dining room; as I entered the room I could still feel the tension that had been there the previous night and it looked like my dad was avoiding even looking at me.

  “There has been an incident.” I stated as I walked to the head of the table.

  “What sort of incident?” Hugo asked with a concerned expression.

  “One of those new mutations attacked us in our top floor suite—somehow the damned thing climbed up the side of this building and climbed over the railing to our balcony; I killed it of course but that just goes to show that we are no longer safe here.” I answered folding my arms with a grim expression.

  “I’d have to agree with you on that…the longer we stay here the more we are risking our own lives.” Beau answered as he picked up his .45 that was sitting on the table before him and started polishing it.

  “What’s the use in running…?”

  “It’s the same everywhere we go.” Sally stated as she hid her face in Cedric’s shirt.

  “Listen up people and listen good—I want this useless self-pity to end and I want it to end now; we have come a long fucking distance out of sheer determination and we have fought for our very lives—we are not going to give up and quit now.” I shouted as I struck the top of the table hard with my right fist causing the plates and other objects to rattle loudly.

  “Chaz…” My dad said with a disgusted look on his face.

  “I don’t want to hear it—I told you last night how I felt and if you oppose me on the way I do things then maybe you should just go your own separate way.” I answered glaring at him.

  “Chaz—don’t say such a thing!” My mom scolded.

  “I’m serious—that goes for all of you; if you have a problem with my leadership and the decisions that I’ve made up till now then please say so—make it easier on everyone!” I shouted angrily.

  It was then that I felt Noah’s hand on my shoulder and I turned to face him.

  “Listen dude, I know how you feel—believe me I do, but this rage…you’re on the edge of breaking; I can tell by the thi
ngs you have said the past twenty four hours.” Noah said in a calm tone.

  “I am just frustrated Noah—it seems like everyone wants to just throw in the towel and quit and I have busted my ass to get us this far!” I answered as I sat down in the nearby chair as Jennifer and Sheila wrapped their arms around my shoulders massaging them.

  “I understand…hell, living in a world filled with undead zombies that try to eat you alive on and on can have that effect—but like you said we can’t just quit now otherwise all the friends that we’ve lost along the way…their deaths will have been for nothing.” Noah continued as he and Christina sat down close by.

  “That’s the thing…I will not let Angie’s death be in vain…I refuse…so if anyone else has anything to say they had better say it now or else keep it to themselves because I will keep going to try and find a way to rid this world of those fucking dead-heads and make Nicolas Bowman pay for what he has done—alone if I have to.” I stated as I looked up at each member of my group.

  There was chatter between several members of the group back and forth and it seemed to last several minutes before everyone turned back to me.

  “There will be no need for you to go on alone to face this shit by yourself—we will follow you and we will help you do what it takes to undo this zombie apocalypse and hopefully restore the world.” Hugo stated as everyone stood up.

  “I’m not sure that we’ll ever be able to restore the world to the way it was…but maybe we can end the plague and save what few people there are left in the world.” I answered as he walked forward and shook my hand.

  Over the next few minutes it seemed like the issue had finally been settled and that the moral of the group had been restored to what it had been before the last week or so; my dad and mom came up to me and at first I figured he was going to announce that I was a fool and that he and my mom would be parting company from us but then he offered his right hand to me and I slowly took it.

  “Chaz…I’m sorry for everything…I know that you have been through hell and back in the past several weeks after losing Angie—I’m just glad that you’ve got Jennifer and Sheila to help you cope with your loss; we’ll follow you and help you to end this.” My dad stated with a sad smile.

  Jennifer and Sheila stepped up to my side with Remy, Mace and Ember in their arms and we were just about to turn back to the others when the whole room around us started shaking—furniture and objects from shelves and the table fell to the floor shattering and the shaking got more and more violent as I struggled to the center of the room where the others were all trying to keep their footing.

  “What the hell is going on—what’s causing this shaking?” Billy shouted as Kayla clung to him with a terrified look on her face.

  “I-I don’t know but we’ve got to get to the lab truck and get out of this place…I have a bad feeling about this!” I shouted back as I grabbed by gear and helped stabilize Jennifer and Sheila.

  “I agree—let’s get the hell down to the lab truck before this whole place collapses on our heads!” Noah shouted as he and Christina turned and started running out of the dining room.

  Within the next few seconds we managed to descend down the service stairs into the parking garage below as the sounds of falling pieces of the ceiling and structure could be heard above us—I hustled everyone into the lab truck and stumbled grabbing hold of the side of the truck as the pavement beneath my feet began to split apart forming a fissure that was running across the whole area; I jumped inside of the lab truck and strapped myself into the drivers’ seat as Jennifer and Sheila settled in beside of me.

  “How the hell are we going to get out of here—the barricade is still up!” Billy shouted as he and Kayla ran up to stand beside of us.

  “We don’t have a choice—hang on everyone!” I shouted as I hit the controls for the protective steel shutters to come down over the front windshield as well as starting the engine.

  All of the lights inside of the truck above us came on making it to where we could see, Hugo ran forward and sat down strapping himself into a seat where a control console appeared before him—a joystick type of lever rose out of the console like there was in the front near us and he leaned forward looking into a targeting computer.

  “Four away!” He shouted as he pressed several buttons on the console and then pulled the firing trigger on the joystick lever.

  The sound of the rocket pods firing rockets could be heard as a loud explosion followed that only slightly shook the truck more than it already was being shook up by whatever was going on around us—Hugo pointed ahead with his left index finger and looked up at me.

  “Go—we should be able to break through!” He shouted.

  “Go straight?” I asked looking back at him briefly.

  “Yes—I can see the image of the exit here on the console…we better hurry there are fissures opening up all around us and the ceiling of the garage above us will collapse at any moment.” Hugo answered as he glanced down at his console once again.

  “Hang on everyone!” I shouted as I put my foot to the pedal speeding forward.

  Those few seconds that passed before we hit and smashed through what was left of the barricade that we had created before seemed to pass off in almost slow motion and when we hit the remains of the barricade all we could hear was breaking glass and metal grinding against metal and within seconds it was over and the steel shutters flew up breaking off the front of the truck as it appeared that they were wasted—I raced down the roadway toward the Brooklyn Bridge that we had used before to cross over into New York City and I could see buildings toppling all around us as we raced toward the exit to the city; huge fissures opened up everywhere not only swallowing wrecked cars, buildings but also masses of undead that seemed to be in a state of confusion if that was even possible.

  “What the hell is this—a damn earthquake or something?” Noah asked with an awestruck expression as he and Christina sat in a seat behind us clutching their son Jude.

  “Has to be…I don’t know what else it could be.” I answered speeding across the Brooklyn Bridge as it swayed around us violently.

  We managed to reach the other side of the bridge and cross over into New Jersey as what was left of the Brooklyn Bridge behind us crumbled and fell into the bay—the shaking was still bad where we were but I stopped for a brief few seconds and everyone looked back on Long Island as the sight of falling skyscrapers and other buildings could be seen; it looked like the whole island was sinking into the ocean.

  “If this is an earthquake we can expect a massive tidal wave to push inland within minutes and crush whatever is left in its path—we had better get the hell out of here and now or it will be too late!” Beau stated as he ran to the radar computer near the analysis station toward the back of the lab truck.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice—hang on guys!” I shouted as I once again put my foot to the pedal speeding away from the area as a roaring sound far behind us could now be heard.

  I found my way to interstate 80 and I sped down the disserted highway away from the area as the massive tidal wave could be seen rolling into the ruins of New York City far behind us—I pushed the engine harder until we were going well over 120 mph and it wasn’t until hours later when we were well over the state line into Pennsylvania near a small town called Berwick that I finally slowed down and stopped as everyone in the group gathered their wits after what had happened.

  “I can’t believe what just happened…if we hadn’t left when we did we would all be dead right now.” Sheila stated as she and Jennifer stood at my side as we all got off the lab truck to look around the area.

  “That was a bad quake…we’re damned lucky to be alive.” Billy stated with a relieved chuckle.

  “There’s a Safeway station nearby—we should refuel and figure out what our next move is going to be.” My dad stated as he pointed over to a large station that was
near to the interstate.

  “Right—let’s hurry up and get this done since we don’t know what could be lurking around.” I answered as I walked back into the lab truck and got into the driver’s seat as everyone else got back inside as well.

  After everyone was ready I drove us over to the station and parked beside of the diesel fuel pumps—there were wrecked and abandoned vehicles all around us and some that looked like they might still run; everyone got out of the lab truck as Noah who usually took care of refueling did so.

  “There’s not much fuel left in this pump it doesn’t seem—that or the pressure switch is messed up inside.” He reported after he had stuck the nozzle into the fuel tank opening.

  “I’ll go check it out.” I answered as I checked my M16’s ammo clip and headed toward the doors of the station.

  Jennifer and Sheila readied their weapons and followed after me as several of the others stood around the parking area and the lab truck with their weapons in hand—I pulled on the glass doors but they wouldn’t budge and when I looked at the inside of the door it looked like they were locked so with one swift action I used the butt of my assault rifle to smash open the glass and unlock the doors; as soon as we stepped inside an alarm sounded from the upper wall behind the counter with the register—I knew that this sound would alert every dead-head and mutation within miles of our presence here so I swiftly drew my magnum and pointed it at the alarm firing. The powerful bullet struck the alarm and destroyed it bringing immediate silence to the area.

  “I hope that none of those fucking dead-heads heard that…otherwise they’ll be coming for us.” I stated as I looked around at the dark room of the store.

  “Is the electricity out here or something?” Jennifer asked as she and Sheila stood at my side.

  That was when Noah came into the store behind us and reported that the fuel wasn’t pumping.

  “The power must be out here…I wonder if they have an emergency generator that will at least allow us to refuel…” I answered as I glanced around the area.