[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “How much further do you wanna go today?” Noah’s voice boomed from the CB radio receiver nearby on the dashboard.

  “We need to try and make it to Yellowstone if possible; once we get there we’ll pull off the road and rest.” I answered into the receiver after Jennifer and Sheila handed it to me.

  “Okay…I hope that we can make it that far—these damned snow drifts are really working over the engine of this truck.” Noah answered on his end as we could all hear the sound of the gears grinding in the background.

  “I hope that we don’t break down in this mess—we haven’t seen many of those dead-heads lately but you can bet your bottom dollar that they’re around somewhere.” I answered in a worried tone.

  “Yeah, we’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled and get moving again if we run into trouble.” Noah answered on his end.

  I continued driving late into that same night with a sense that I needed to get my convoy to the location that we had agreed on—I was lost in thought when Sheila and Jennifer both touched my right shoulder.

  “Do you think that we’ll be safe at Yellowstone?” Sheila asked with concern in her voice.

  “I don’t know baby, the snow and cold shouldn’t be as bad there though due to the geothermal and volcanic activity.” I answered glancing first at Sheila and then at Jennifer.

  “That’s right—I forgot about it being volcanic there; I guess if it comes down to it we could ride out the rest of the winter there and start out again once spring arrives.” Jennifer added with a thoughtful expression.

  “Yeah—we’ll just have to wait and see how things are when we get there as well as how well we’re able to even get there considering these snow drifts are putting quite a bit of strain on our vehicles.” I answered smiling at them before glancing back at the dark, blank snow-covered roadway ahead of us.

  “It might be a good idea if we can find some all-terrain tires for the vehicles—it might really help.” Richard stated as he and Morgana cuddled behind us.

  “I agree on that—this snow is getting thicker and deeper; the last thing we want is to get snowbound.” My dad stated as he sat at the dining table behind us.

  “Yeah…this RV should be okay for the time being as it seems to have a lot of power but I know that the others in the transport truck and the SUV won’t be so lucky if they get stuck in a snowdrift.” I stated in deep thought as I watched the roadway ahead.

  “What route are we planning on using to head back east?” Jennifer asked as she rocked Xavier to sleep in her arms.

  “I guess our best bet would be to head to the New England area and see if we can’t locate more clues…my mind keeps going back to that shit that we found in that briefcase before that bio-weapon appeared—if Bowman has created a whole new strain of the virus plus started new experiments on corpses then I have a bad feeling on what the future could hold for us.” I answered as I glanced at her.

  “Do we still have that data that we found?” Richard asked in a curious tone.

  “Yeah—Hugo and the others have it with them.” I answered as I glanced at him in the rear view mirror.

  The rest of the roadway toward Yellowstone seemed easily passable and we had arrived on the edge of what had once been the national park by the next morning, the snow drifts were here and there but it actually looked like much of the area was clear and free of snow and ice and my guess at the time was that it was because of the heat from the volcanic activity below the earth in the area; I pulled the RV up beside of the visitor center and parked it as the others in the military transport truck pulled in next to us on the left side followed by Billy, Kayla, Kira and Lori Jo who were in the SUV—I opened the door of the RV and led the way out with my weapons in hand as everyone else who was inside of the RV behind me followed.

  “This place actually seems kinda warm for this time of the year.” Noah stated as he and Christina as well as their son Jude strolled over to us followed by the rest of the group.

  “Yeah—that’s probably a good thing because we might have to stay here for a while until spring comes because it’s going to get worse the further north we go.” I answered as I glanced at him and then at the others.

  “What’s the plan for our next destination?” Billy asked as he and Kayla huddled together nearby.

  “I’m thinking that we need to head toward the New England area to try and locate any viable clues as to where Bowman might be, but I’m thinking that it would be better not to travel back through the heartland of this country due to the mutations and other dead-heads that seem to be spreading like a surge.” I answered in deep thought.

  “What route do you suggest we take then?” Hugo asked as he and the rest of the Covenant One members gathered around a road map that they had.

  “I’m figuring we’ll head up through Montana, then east through North Dakota and Minnesota until we pass into Canada—from there we’ll sort of hug the edges of the Great Lakes until we get to the re-entry point back into the states which will be northwestern Maine.” I explained as I walked over to their map and used my finger to point the way.

  “That’s going to be some major driving ahead of us but I agree with that plan and I think that it would also be wise for us to avoid the heartland.” Beau stated folding his arms.

  “When are we going to try and attempt this?” Morgana asked from behind me where she stood with Richard.

  “Well, judging on the weather and road conditions of the present time I’m suggesting that we wait at least until the first week of March—we don’t want to start out too soon and then possibly be stranded in a blizzard.” I answered as I turned and glanced at her briefly.

  “But where the hell are we all going to stay until then?” Christina asked with a skeptical look.

  “The RV is big but it’s not going to hold all of us.” She continued after a few seconds had passed.

  “It might be a good idea if we check out this visitor center and see what shape the interior of the building is in—we can clear out any dead-heads or other mutations that we find inside.” Hugo stated thoughtfully as his gaze went to the nearby building.

  “He’s right—there are restrooms inside as well as ample room for everyone to sleep and we should be able to fortify it enough to keep those bastards out.” I stated wrapping my arms around Jennifer and Sheila as they held the babies in their arms while Remy, Mace and Ember stood between them and my parents and sister.

  “Not to mention the fact that this building is huge—I’m guessing that there are at least two entrances; we could pull our vehicles up to the side of both entrances and that would seal them off as well as allow us to get back inside of them easily if need be.” Billy stated as he took a few steps toward the massive visitor center.

  “Let’s head in and see how the structure is.” I stated as I checked the ammo clip in my M16 and led the way toward the front doors.

  I arrived at the glass doors of the visitor center and immediately noticed that the glass was completely gone and the snow had been blown inside onto the floor at least several feet into the building—there were what looked like fragments of glass as well as blood and other traces of decay and I knew that there might possibly be some dead-heads inside of this place.

  “We’re going to have to fix that door back there if we hope to keep those fuckers out of here.” Noah stated from behind me.

  “If the other doors are the same, we’ll do like I already said—we’ll pull the vehicles up to the outside of the doors and park them there; that’ll create a barricade and it will be easier and safer for us to board the vehicles and flee if the need should arise.” I stated as I glanced around at the dark, vacant rooms that we passed by.

  We got to what seemed like the central most area of the building and then I glanced around at the emptiness of the area and turned to the rest of the group who glanced around shifting their weapons from one hand to
another.

  “This place looks dead—there are traces of those fuckers here and there but it looks like nothing or no one has been here for a very long time.” I stated as I lowered my assault rifle.

  “Yeah—the traces that I’ve noticed look like they’re more than several months old; we should still do a sweep of this place just to make sure that there aren’t any surprises.” Hugo stated as he walked over into a nearby large room that was filled with large windows looking out on the surrounding parking lot and areas of the national park.

  “I agree—not to mention getting something to barricade those big-ass windows in there; it wouldn’t take much for those assholes to break those windows and get in here if they somehow sniffed us out.” Billy answered as he propped his weapon against the nearby countertop.

  “Alright—let’s do a sweep of this building and meet back here in ten minutes; after that we’ll work on the necessary fortifications.” I instructed as everyone got into a circle around me.

  Everyone spread out to check around the building and it wasn’t long before we heard gunfire from several areas off to the northern end of the complex, I held my assault rifle ready as Jennifer and Sheila stood beside of me with the kids—we waited and we didn’t hear anymore gunshots; that was when the others came back and reported what they had found.

  “Looks like that was all of them—there were three dead-heads on the northern end of the complex; it looked like we caught them by surprise and we killed them quickly.” Hugo stated as his eyes met mine.

  “Good—let’s get to work with fortifying this place, gather any large pieces of paneling or plywood that you can find as well as hammers and nails; if you happen to come across barbed wire or anything else gather it up as well.” I instructed as everyone gathered into a circle around me.

  “I saw a maintenance shed out by the side of this building a little while ago—I’m going to see if I can’t get some firewood chopped to get us a fire going in here since the temperature will be dropping as soon as night falls.” Noah stated as he motioned toward the front doorway.

  “Okay, but be careful out there.” I answered turning to him.

  “I’ll go with him and cover his back while he works.” Christina stated as she stepped up beside of Noah with her guns in hand.

  “You stay and play with Remy and the others.” Christina instructed to Jude as he started to follow them.

  “Okay, mom.” Jude answered smiling.

  Noah and Christina headed toward the front doors of the building and everyone else spread out to gather what supplies they could find to fortify the place against undead infiltration and after several hours we had most of the windows and doors blocked off with barricades that we hoped would keep the dead-heads from breaking in and coming after us—the large windows in the main lobby of the building had been covered as well and we had strung barbed wire across the gap of the openings before we had nailed the barrier up and we were hoping that if the undead hordes were to sniff us out and go to break through that section that the barbed wire would help to stop them; lastly we pulled our vehicles up against the two main entrances of the building like we had planned to and they were made ready in case we were to have to flee quickly. As the night quickly approached everyone gathered around the large fireplace in the lobby of the building and my mom and a few of the other women worked to cook up dinner, it seemed a little odd to be holed up inside of a building of this size and I had to try and put my worries aside as Jennifer and Sheila both cuddled with me underneath the blanket that they had brought from the bedroom of the RV—Jennifer breastfed Xavier using her jacket as cover and Sheila done the same with Darc Aiden. Everyone else talked while they ate and soon many of us had fallen asleep including me, Jennifer and Sheila as well as our children and the gloom of the night seemed to pass over us rather quickly; I woke the next morning to sounds coming from outside of the barriers that we had created to keep the undead hordes out—I noticed that Noah and Christina as well as Richard and Morgana were waking up as well and I glanced over at Jennifer and Sheila as they both woke as well.

  “Dude…what the hell is that sound?” Noah asked glancing at me with a worried expression on his face.

  “I don’t know…I was about to go check and see.” I answered as I got to my feet and straightened my clothes before grabbing my M16 and checking the ammo clip.

  “I’ll join you—I have a bad feeling about that noise.” Richard stated as he grabbed his weapons and checked his ammo supply.

  I turned and swiftly kissed Jennifer and Sheila before leading the way into the dark hallway that stretched away from where the others were, the first place we checked was the room with the large windows that looked out on the parking lot—I carefully peeked through the crack of one of the boards and looked through for a few split seconds only to see something big coming straight at the barrier; I quickly jumped back as whatever it was struck the outside of the window causing the glass to shatter and the boards to shake violently.

  “What the fuck is it?” Richard shouted as he looked on the barricade with dread.

  “I don’t know—I couldn’t tell but whatever it is out there, it’s a big motherfucker!” I answered as I could now hear the running feet of the rest of our group.

  “What’s going on?” Hugo asked as the rest of the group arrived behind us.

  “There’s something out there—it’s attacking the barricade to these windows; it’s already shattered the window glass.” I answered as Jennifer and Sheila ran into my arms with our children close.

  “Someone needs to go up topside and see what the hell we’re dealing with.” Hugo answered with a worried expression.

  “I’ll climb up to the roof and take a look.” Beau answered as he turned and headed for the stairs.

  Everyone clustered around Richard and I and we talked in hushed tones as we waited, it wasn’t but a few short minutes before we heard automatic gunfire from Beau’s weapon as he no doubt caught sight of whatever it was that was outside.

  “I’m going up there too—get your gear together everyone—we might be forced to flee this place!” I instructed as I gripped my M16 and headed for the stairs.

  After several minutes of climbing stairs I arrived behind Beau on an upper balcony that overlooked the parking lot and I ran up beside of him and pointed my rifle down at whatever it was; that was when I saw that the parking lot was full of what looked like exotic animals—their flesh was rotted off in places and many of them looked like lions.

  “What the hell…there must have been a zoo somewhere not too far away from here—these animals are infected and they’ve sniffed us out here.” I stated as Beau glanced at me with a worried expression.

  “I’ve capped over two dozen of them already and they just keep coming—they’re being joined by wolves and mountain lions that are all in the same state; if this continues they’ll smash through the barriers easily.” Beau stated as he once again opened fire on a group of the predators that had formally been living, breathing zoo animals.

  “Stand clear!” I shouted as I took out a grenade from my gear, pulled the pin and hurled it down into the parking lot where it exploded destroying a large group of the creatures as well as several parked vehicles.

  “They just keep fucking coming—we’re gonna have to get out of here!” Beau shouted as he was forced to step back as one of the mountain lions leapt up and nearly grabbed his left arm in its jaws.

  With little more hesitation the two of us turned and headed back through the balcony door and down the stairs until we were finally back with the rest of the group who met us with confused and worried expressions.

  “What’s going on out there?” Noah asked as he and Christina held onto each other as well as Jude.

  “There’s an army of infected zoo animals out there trying to break in here—this place is compromised; we need to get to the vehicles and leave at once!” I
answered grimly.

  I helped Jennifer and Sheila with their gear as well as Remy, Mace and Ember’s things and they gathered their diaper bags and other gear and followed me as did the others to the side of the building where we had left our vehicles parked forming the barricade, I quickly climbed into the RV helping Jennifer and Sheila inside as they helped the kids—my parents, sister and niece climbed in as well as Richard, Morgana and Simone and the others piled into the back of the transport truck and Billy, Kayla and Kira brought in the rear in the SUV. I put my foot to the pedal and sped away from the doomed visitor center as the others followed close behind, in the rear view mirror I seen Hugo point an RPG launcher out the rear of the truck and fire—the rocket soared back into the structure of the building and exploded creating a massive fire cloud as we sped away from it steadily.

  “I hope that killed those things.” Hugo stated over the CB as we continued away from the scene until we were miles away from it.

  By that time I started noticing that the snow drifts were getting deeper and deeper and that was when I spotted some sort of building sitting off in the trees, as we got closer to whatever it was I noticed that it was surrounded not only by thick woods but also a tall chain linked fence and when I pulled up to the gate I could see a sign on the gate nearby that said “Property of the United States Government”.

  “Trespassers will be shot…what sort of place is this?” Richard asked as he read the rest of the sign.