[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “Now what was this antitoxin sample base that you mentioned?” Jessica asked as she looked me over closely.

  “We have been searching for clues and trailing the one who is responsible for this whole zombie apocalypse mess—his name is Nicolas Bowman; he created the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin which in turn was used on bodies of the dead deep below the Oklahoma City hospital as well as ones in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and New York City; these infected reanimated corpses attacked living victims and in turn infected them as well and from there it became a global pandemic that quickly destroyed most of us off within a few years’ time…we’ve been surviving by staying on the move—when we do stop for a period of time we’re forced to do so in a heavily fortified location and hope and pray each day that we continue to stay safe.” I answered with a distant stare as I glanced around at the others.

  “That’s pretty much the story that every survivor has—the ones that are lucky enough to still be among the living…you mentioned an antitoxin sample base?” Bruce answered with a hopeful expression.

  “Yeah—sorry, I was getting to that…we managed to recover an antitoxin sample deep beneath the Oklahoma City Hospital that Bowman created obviously as a failsafe for himself alone were his own creations to attack him…we took it to a pharmaceutical company in New York City hoping to find some doctors or scientists there who could use the sample to create a cure but all we found was death and a more dangerous and deadly strain of the virus; we managed to synthesize a vaccine from the sample and inoculate everyone in our group but the zombies and other mutations are getting worse and much smarter than they ever were before.” I answered grimly.

  “So you guys are all immune to the infection that those fuckers transmit whenever they bite or scratch someone?” Wade asked stepping forward.

  “Yes—it doesn’t make us invincible though as we still have to be very careful…we’ve lost several members of the group since leaving New York City to those mutations literally tearing them to pieces.” I answered folding my arms.

  “How have you guys managed to stay alive this long?” Hugo cut in as he and the other Covenant One members stepped forward.

  “By barricading the doors and staying out of sight—the slightest little noises will bring them down on you as well, so we’ve been trying to stay hidden for the most part—living on canned food and candy from inside the store…we heard you guys pull up in your vehicles and we knew that you were either survivors on the run from the undead or that you were marauders looking to break in and take whatever you could find—that’s why we approached you with our weapons drawn.” Bruce explained as he glanced briefly at Hugo and then back to me.

  “Two classes of survivors out there these days—like I said before—I don’t know which is worse, them or the dead-heads.” I stated with a look of disgust as I remembered the incident that had happened to make me use those words.

  “There’s not much of a difference we’ve noticed—most marauders that we’ve seen or heard about in the past few years have been dangerous convicts that were confined to maximum security prisons…of course when the whole world goes to shit in a global pandemic that transforms victims into flesh-eating monsters the other monsters that were conveniently parked behind bars escape and add to the situation.” Jessica answered as she stepped closer to me.

  I could feel her gaze on me and it made me feel uncomfortable, she had been eying me lustfully ever since we had met.

  “Yeah…listen…we’re heading west toward the west coast hoping to find a safe location where we can set up a permanent base of operations—you guys are welcome to join us if you want; this place won’t be safe forever.” I stated as I turned away from Jessica’s penetrating gaze and focused on Bruce and the others.

  “We’ll join you—we’ve got an armored car that we can follow you in.” Bruce stated as he turned and motioned to a large vehicle that was sitting inside of the area that had been behind the steel shutter doors.

  “Okay—let us get to pumping the fuel and we’ll get going.” I stated as I turned and returned to the pump beside of our RV and placed the nozzle of the hose into the RV’s tank.

  As I started pumping I would glance back at Jessica wearily hoping that she didn’t come over to me, Jennifer and Sheila came up beside of me after putting the kids back inside of the RV and wrapped their arms around me.

  “She’s pretty damn bold—she was practically stripping your clothes off and fucking you with her eyes a minute ago.” Jennifer stated in a low voice.

  “Yeah—no kidding…I have a feeling that she is going to be trouble.” Sheila added as she leaned against the side of the RV.

  “I have the same feeling…if she does end up causing problems then we’ll tell her to leave.” I answered in a reassuring tone as I continued pumping the fuel.

  Noah and Billy finished with fueling up their vehicles as well as the auxiliary supply tank that was in the back of the transport truck soon after and we all got back into our vehicles—I was pleased to see that Jessica got into the armored car with the other new comers and didn’t make any more moves on me and I could tell that Jennifer and Sheila were pleased to see that as well. I started up the engine of the RV and lead the way back out onto the interstate and I drove for around five straight hours—by that time it was well past nightfall and I was winding down as my eyes were getting heavy; Richard offered to drive and I took him up on his offer.

  “We just passed Casper a little while ago so keep heading west until the junction to get off on the 267 southeast.” I instructed as Jennifer and Sheila stood behind me waiting.

  Richard nodded and Morgana came up toward the front passenger seat—smiling in the same flirting manner as she had before at me as she passed and she sat down beside of Richard as he took over driving, I retired to the luxurious bedroom in the back that was lavishly decorated and had a queen sized bed in the center of the room—just off from that there was a large screen television and I looked on it with amazement.

  “Wow…if only we had use of these sorts of things.” I stated with a chuckle.

  “Maybe one day we can restore at least part of that old world.” Jennifer stated with a distant look as she removed her clothes and gear until she was nude before climbing underneath the covers of the bed.

  I helped Sheila get undressed as well as she cradled her swollen pregnant stomach as she got into bed beside of me on my left side, we soon after drifted off to sleep and I soon found that traveling in this palace on wheels was even more relaxing than the lab truck had been; it was almost as if we had never left the hotel in New York City. I woke later the next day to the smell of food cooking and I remembered that the RV was fully equipped with a kitchen and dining area—I rose out of bed waking Jennifer and Sheila in the process and we got dressed before heading into the main part of the RV, my mom was cooking lunch and by the smell of it I could tell that it was something a little different then what we normally ate. Upon inspection I saw that she was cooking up a large portion of beef stroganoff in a skillet—I glanced at the others around with a shocked expression and then at my mom.

  “Hugo and the others stocked the refrigerator with frozen meats—I was surprised when I saw it in there as well.” My mom answered upon my questioning glance.

  “Are you sure it’s safe to eat after all this time?” I asked raising my right eyebrow inquisitively.

  “Yes—we asked Hugo personally; he said that they found it in a deep freezer that had still been running inside of a grocery store back in Lusk—he said that the meat was only a few weeks old.” My dad answered.

  “A few weeks old—how the hell can that be possible?” Jennifer asked as she took my right hand into hers.

  “I don’t know—but it sounds like there are other survivors out there somewhere and that they had been holed up in that store where Hugo and the others found the meat and other supplies.” Richard answered from the front.


  “It could have belonged to those marauders who destroyed our convoy vehicles…that’s really the only explanation that makes sense.” I answered in deep thought.

  “Yeah…they probably took it from somewhere else before that—I just hope that we don’t run into any more of those assholes.” Sheila stated with a worried expression.

  “Yeah…me too, where are we right now Richard?” I answered as I turned and glanced toward the front of the RV.

  “We’re getting close to someplace called Muddy Gap—I stopped on the side of the road for a bit so we could cook; you can’t use the regular engine and the powered appliances at the same time—right now they’re running off the battery.” Richard answered with a yawn.

  “Damn dude—you’ve almost gotten us back to the 80—good job.” I answered as I patted his shoulder.

  “Thanks—I pretty much kept my eyes on the road and didn’t stop for nothing.” Richard answered taking a swig of coffee from the mug beside of him.

  “How are the others behind us in the other vehicles?” Jennifer asked as my mom handed her a plate of the stroganoff that she had just finished making.

  “They’re okay—Noah and Billy sounded like they were getting tired though.” My dad answered as he grabbed a plate of food for himself as Sheila took the next plate that Jennifer handed to her and passed it to me.

  After everyone had been served we all sat down at the large table in the dining area and ate and then Richard started the engine and waited for the others behind us to do the same and he continued driving as Morgana helped him navigate—it seemed great to be eating something different than canned beans or canned pasta for a change.

  “That’s something else that is a crucial matter that needs to be addressed.” I stated as I cleaned my plate.

  “What’s that baby?” Jennifer asked as she finished her food and started feeding Xavier a bottle of breast milk that she had prepared the previous night.

  “When we find a safe place to set up a permanent base of operations, we need to make sure that it has a way for us to grow our own food—we can’t continue to survive on canned beans and such for much longer.” I answered with a thoughtful expression.

  “Amen to that one, brother—I’ve never farted so much before as I have the past few months…I swear I don’t know what they put in those pork and beans to give people as much gas as it does.” Richard stated from the front.

  Everyone burst out laughing as we all knew that it was true, I couldn’t help agreeing and I was thankful that our ritzy new RV had an equally large and luxurious bathroom onboard; we were starting to get into some highlands as we got deeper and deeper into the Rocky Mountains.

  “Stop right up here for a minute and I’ll take over driving.” I stated as I walked to the front of the cab and pointed to a spot on the roadway ahead.

  Richard nodded and he slowly pulled to a stop and got up out of the driver’s seat as Morgana followed, I sat down and strapped my seat belt on as Jennifer and Sheila sat down beside of me—Sheila made herself comfortable in a plush seat behind me as Jennifer took out the road atlas and pinpointed our location; that was when the CB radio communicator on the dashboard sounded with Noah’s voice.

  “What’s up?”

  “Just giving Richard a break as he’s been driving all night—how are you guys doing?” I answered as I sat waiting for his reply.

  “Okay—I’ve been resting now for the past hour and Christina has been driving.” Noah answered as I could hear Christina and Jude’s voices in the background.

  “We’re okay as well—about the same here—I’m driving while Billy and Kayla get some rest.” Kira stated on the other end.

  “We’re doing fine here as well.” Bruce’s voice replied from their receiver inside of their armored car.

  “Have there been any signs of the undead lately?” I asked as I glanced into the rear view mirror toward my parents.

  “We’ve seen a few of them along the side of the road earlier—several of them took chase after us but other than that there haven’t been any complications.” My dad answered as he finished his coffee.

  “This state seems to go on forever…and I thought Nebraska was boring.” Kira stated on her end.

  “Well, it shouldn’t be much longer before we reconnect with interstate 80—after that we just head west and the next big city we’ll pass through is Salt Lake City.” Jennifer stated as she smiled over at me briefly.

  “Oh yippy…we get to go through Utah again…I hate that fucking state.” I answered in a low aggravated tone.

  I started driving again and within the next hour or so we finally reached interstate 80 and I turned right heading west once again—the interstate seemed to be relatively passable although there were wrecked vehicles and semis all along the roadway that I had to occasionally swerve around; the undead were getting thicker and several times during the next few hours I found the whole front of our RV surrounded by them—luckily these seemed to be the normal dead-heads that hadn’t mutated further like the ones back east had and that gave us hope that maybe we had gotten ahead of the new strain. Over the next day and a half we traveled the rest of the way through southwestern Wyoming and finally crossed over into northern Utah by the third day and we could all see the ruins of the buildings as we got closer and closer to Salt Lake City and by noon of that same day we were passing through the city—I didn’t stop as the streets were crawling with dead-heads and as we got further and further into the city we had to take detours several times due to excessive wrecked vehicles and debris that blocked the roadway; I had just passed through the main part of the city and we were heading away toward the west along interstate 80 as it ran along the southern tip of the Great Salt Lake when the CB radio on the dashboard suddenly came to life with Hugo’s voice.

  “Chaz—guys—we’re picking up something on the small mobile radar system that we have!”

  “What is it or can you tell?” I asked as Jennifer handed the CB receiver to me.

  “Yeah, it appears to be a Tupolev-95.” Hugo answered on the other end.

  “What the hell is that?” Noah asked on his end.

  “It’s a long-range bomber capable of carrying a nuclear weapon.” Hugo answered in a worried tone.

  “Fuck…has there been any contact with the pilot of this aircraft?” I asked in a frantic tone.

  That was when Hugo opened the rear cab window of the transport truck and put the CB radio receiver he was using up to the radio inside the cab—we could hear a transmission that was obviously coming in from the aircraft.

  “Hostiles on interstate 80 headed west out of SLC…confirmed that they are the same ones who downed the chopper in Lusk, Wyoming several days back—awaiting orders.”

  “Shit—that’s got to be more of those damned marauders that attacked us back in Lusk—as if we didn’t have enough trouble trying to survive the onslaught of undead!” Billy shouted over his end.

  “Confirmed—you are clear to initiate.” Another voice answered over the transmission.

  “Shit—we’ve got to get the hell away from this area now—that thing is more than likely carrying a 15,000 KT warhead!” Hugo shouted over the radio.

  “That will obliterate this entire valley—step on it guys!” Billy stated on his end as he sped up to where their SUV was driving beside of the transport truck.

  “We’ve got to destroy that aircraft somehow before it targets us!” I shouted as I put my foot all the way down on the gas pedal causing the RV to speed up greatly passing the 100 mph mark.

  “I’m going to try something…” Beau stated over the radio as there were sounds of rushed objects banging and scrapping together.

  It was at that moment when he climbed up out of the back of the transport truck and managed to climb up onto the top of the canvas area—I glanced back in the side mirror and seen that he held a huge weapon in his a
rms—it looked like some sort of hand-held SAM launcher; Richard and several of the others in our RV ran and opened the rear windows of the RV where we could see behind us better—Beau attached a harness with a clip onto his side and attached it to the side of the transport truck and then he placed the large weapon on his right shoulder and pointed it up into the sky toward the enemy bomber that was coming from a northeastern vector of approach from over Salt Lake City toward us. It took him a few seconds to gain his footing as well as get a lock on the target and finally he fired the weapon—the missile shot up out of the end of the launcher soaring into the sky; the force of the weapon recoil knocked Beau off his feet and sent him over the side of the truck. Luckily the harness and cord that he had attached to himself saved him from falling to the pavement below and the others in the back of the transport truck pulled him inside to safety after removing the harness—the missile soared up into the air and struck the enemy bomber on the right starboard side exploding causing the pilot to lose control and soar down into the heart of the city behind us just seconds after he had opened the bombing bay doors and dropped the armed nuke.

  “Shit—don’t look at the flash!” I shouted as I sped up even more past the 120 mph mark.

  We all had to quickly close our eyes for a few seconds as a brilliant flash lit up the sky behind us, I was pushing the engine to the limit and I knew that it wasn’t good for it but I had no choice—the deafening roar of the nuclear explosion behind us was making the ground around our vehicles and everything inside of them shake as the shockwave was no doubt approaching us from behind.