[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “Great—more fucking marauders!” Billy shouted in rage as he checked the clip in his assault rifle.

  “Get across the bridge—I’ll hold them off!” Beau shouted over the CB as he turned and opened fire with his Gau-8 Avenger.

  I climbed back into the driver’s side of our Mustang as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe done the same and I put my foot to the gas leading the way across the bridge—as I glanced in the rear view mirror I could tell that there weren’t just a few enemy vehicles that would be easily destroyed—there was what appeared to be a small battalion of heavily armored vehicles and the gunfire of the battle chassis was only slightly damaging them as they steadily approached; that was when an AH-64 Apache Gunship roared over our heads and circled around a nearby building heading back toward the bridge where we were all desperately trying to get to the other side of the river. I sped up as the pilot of the gunship opened fire with the nose cannon and I could hear the bullets tearing into the armor on the top of our Mustang as well as the others behind us, I knew that if the gunship launched one of its rockets at us then it would all be over—I managed to get to the other side of the bridge and I pulled our Mustang up in front of a brick building using it as cover long enough to dash out of the car around to the trunk where I took out the RPG launcher that I had stored back there; I loaded a rocket into it and aimed upward as the enemy gunship soared over my head and went to turn toward us, I fired the rocket which shot up hitting the gunship in the bottom near the tail. That caused a massive explosion that soon after triggered a multitude of other explosions as the rocket pods ignited sending the enemy aircraft into the waters of the river below where it made a massive splash—seconds later that section of the river was shrouded in thick, black smoke as the fuel on the surface of the water burned hotly; I glanced back toward the bridge where the others were coming across and arriving near where I had parked our Mustang and I could see Beau running across the bridge toward us with the enemy vehicles closing in on him from behind—the chassis looked like it was moderately damaged and that was when it was hit by an enemy rocket from behind. The jolt of the explosion caused Beau to lose control of the running motion and the whole thing fell forward onto its front and caught fire.

  “Shit—he’s not going to make it!” I shouted as I grabbed another rocket round from the ammo cache in our trunk and proceeded to reload my RPG launcher.

  That was when the cockpit popped open and Beau climbed out stumbling as he ran as fast as he could toward us, I seen one of the enemy vehicles stop and several figures stepped out of it and pointed their weapons at Beau—determined to save his life before he was killed right in front of us I fired my RPG and the rocket flew across the span slamming into the side of the vehicle where the marauder forces were gathering causing a massive explosion that caused the steel bridge above to make a loud creaking sound; only seconds later the battle chassis exploded as well and the bridge began to fall apart as the cables and steel support beams gave way—Beau leapt through the air landing in front of us just as the whole bridge collapsed into the river in front of us with a deafening crash.

  “Well—there went the battle chassis…but it’s good that you survived.” Amy stated as she and the other Covenant One members helped Beau up and checked on him.

  “Are you okay?” I asked stepping toward him.

  “I caught a bullet in my left knee…it’s bleeding like a son of a bitch!” Beau answered as he clenched his teeth in pain.

  “Get the first aid supplies ready—he’s gonna be okay.” Amy commanded as they helped Beau into the back of the Eco-Roamer.

  Evangeline got in with them as they tended to patching his wound up and the rest of the group returned to their vehicles.

  “How the fucking hell are those assholes tracking us down this easily?” Richard asked over the CB as I started the engine of our Mustang.

  “I don’t know…I was wondering the same damn thing.” I answered speaking into the CB with a trouble look.

  “It’s possible that these vehicles of ours have some sort of homing devices hidden inside of them that the enemy is using to keep attacking us.” Hugo answered on his end with a worried tone.

  “That would make sense…there’s no other way that they could continually attack us on and on without help of some sort.” I answered in deep thought.

  “Should we search for the devices and destroy them?” Billy asked on his end.

  “Not here—we may have destroyed that bridge but you can bet your asses that that won’t slow them down for long; we need to get away from this area and then when we find a more secure location we can stop and see if we can’t find and destroy the homing beacons.” I answered as I put the CB back onto the dashboard in front of me.

  “Not too much further we’ll be in Quebec…maybe there’ll be some place there that we can stop and deal with this issue.” My dad stated over the radio.

  “I say that we keep going and we get our asses back across the border into Maine—if I am not mistaken—there are a lot of areas of northwestern Maine that are nothing but thick wilderness; that would be our best bet.” Beau answered on the other end in a voice that was filled with pain and stress.

  “Okay—sounds good, you hang in there Beau.” I answered as I led the way toward the nearest highway that would lead us away from the area.

  As nightfall approached we arrived in the outskirts of the large city of Quebec—I didn’t waste any precious time going through the actual downtown area, I found the road that was indicated on the atlas to lead us back into the States toward Maine and I took it without hesitation; some two or so hours later we sped through the border check area and into Maine; it felt good to be leaving Canada behind as well as the notion that we would be hopefully getting some answers soon about Bowman’s whereabouts. I continued driving until we arrived in a small town called Jackman and then I turned off to the left on a lonely woodland road that looked like it would take us deep into the forests of northwestern Maine, after several minutes I found a remote camping area where there were a few wrecked and abandoned vehicles here and there—it looked like several people back in the day before the original outbreak had started had stopped to camp here but it was anyone’s guess as to what had happened to them in the long 11 years since that time. I parked our Mustang and we all got out of the car with our weapons ready, the others done the same and we gathered into a circle.

  “I’ll check each of the vehicles and see if I can’t find the homing devices, I’m familiar with the way most of them used to work.” Hugo stated as he took out a knife and started rummaging through our Mustang.

  After several minutes he found the device—it had been hidden inside of the glove box on the passenger side just below the mounted machine gun, he destroyed it and tossed the remains of the electronic device out onto the ground and started with the next vehicle. After a good twenty minutes he had managed to find and dispose of all of the homing beacons and we were ready to leave—we didn’t waste any more time there because we were starting to hear the sounds of the undead getting closer; I led the way driving well into the night and by the early hours of the next morning I had gotten my convoy to another small town called East Millinocket.

  “We should be able to connect and head southeast once we get to interstate 95…from there we keep going until the 95 becomes the 295 and it’ll lead us straight into Portland.” Jennifer stated as she looked over the road atlas.

  “Thank God…maybe we can find Bowman and put an end to this whole thing.” Sheila stated with a hopeful smile.

  “I know what you mean, baby—we’ve been traveling and on the road now for seems like a lifetime; I’m hoping that we can find a safe place and settle in.” I answered as I drove through the back roads of the small town until we arrived on a stretch of highway that looked like it would lead us to the interstate.

  Jennifer soon after took over driving as I was both hungry and tired and it wa
sn’t long after that when we arrived at interstate 95 and Jennifer pulled onto it and we started out toward the southeast part of the state, we continued on into the morning hours and by noon of that day the heat of the late spring day was really starting to get to us as we were forced to open all of the windows in our Mustang in order to try and stifle the heat; that was when I noticed that the city of Bangor was only a few miles away.

  “That’s Bangor up ahead…it might not be a good idea to traverse through a city of that size—there’s an alternative route heading south toward the coast according to the atlas and it’s called highway 2; we can take it south for a few miles and then it will connect with highway 1 which we can use to get to a town called Brunswick—at that time we’ll come to interstate 295 and we’ll take it to Portland from there.” I explained over the CB as the others in our convoy behind us were discussing which direction we should take.

  “I agree—after what has happened in the past several cities that we’ve passed through, I think that it’s smart to avoid any more large cities until we arrive in Portland.” Richard stated on his end.

  There wasn’t much more discussion as Jennifer stopped briefly allowing me to drive again and we had started out again I turned left and headed along the rural alternative route and after several more hours of driving and passing through minor to moderately destroyed areas I was glad that I had made the decision of traveling this way—by 8:45 pm that evening we had passed through several small to good sized coastal towns along the way and we finally arrived in the town of Brunswick; I didn’t waste any time and turned left onto the 295 heading southeast toward our destination.

  “Chaz—we need to stop and refuel here soon.” Hugo stated over the CB.

  I glanced down at the fuel gauge of the Mustang and noticed that we needed more as well, I shortly after spotted a large travel station that was moderately destroyed on one side—the pumps were still intact however and I pulled off the roadway and into the lot of the station; that was when Jennifer called my attention to something on the top of the station awning—it was what looked like a tattered umbrella and as we watched a figure appeared and stood there looking down at us with a frightened expression. It was a young woman and it looked like she had somehow climbed up onto the top of the station awning and had probably been hiding there for a good while, she had long wavy red hair and I could tell that she was moderately sunburned—she reluctantly pointed a .45 caliber handgun toward us and held it there with shaky hands.

  “Who are you people?” She called down in a nervous tone.

  “My name is Chaz Watkins, these are my girlfriends Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe—our kids Remy, Mace, Ember, Xavier and Darc Aiden…our friends are with us.” I answered motioning toward my group members around and behind me.

  The others introduced themselves and the young woman slowly lowered her weapon and she then started to speak.

  “I-I’m a survivor from Annapolis, Maryland—I’ve been on the run for more days than I can remember to count…ever since this whole thing started back in October of 2000; my name is Kaitlynn Myers.” The young woman answered as she brushed the hair out of her eyes with her left hand.

  “It’s always nice to come along someone who has been riding this shit out from the beginning.” I stated as I shouldered my M16 turning back to the fuel pumps next to where I had parked our Mustang.

  “I take it that you guys are survivors as well…even though you’re all driving vehicles that those troublemakers drive?” The young woman named Kaitlynn asked as she walked to a nearby section of the roof that had a ladder.

  She was wearing a thin white string bikini top and bottom as she came toward the ladder and we watched as she pulled on some clothes over her swimsuit before climbing down, she came up to me as I was guessing she recognized me as pretty much being the leader of our convoy.

  “You guys look like you’ve been through hell and high water…of course everyone who is lucky enough to still be among the living has.” She stated as she looked me over closely as I checked the pumps.

  “We’re on our way to Portland to try and see if we can find clues regarding the whereabouts of the one responsible for this whole mess.” I answered as I turned and met her eyes—which were a baby blue color.

  “As I said when you guys first arrived, I’ve seen large groups of those troublemakers around here—they seem to travel up and down the interstate here and I can’t be sure but they might be massing in Portland.” Kaitlynn stated folding her arms across her chest.

  “Then there’s a good chance that we’ll finally come face to face with Nicolas Bowman and settle the score.” Billy stated in a relieved tone as he wrapped his left arm around Kayla’s waist.

  “What made you climb up there anyway?” Beau asked as he limped forward from out of the back of the Eco-Roamer.

  “Those zombie things chased me here several days ago and I was forced to climb up here in order to survive—I stayed quiet for several days only drinking rain water that I collected in a small plastic bucket that I found up there and those things eventually went away; that was around the time that I started seeing those other people.” Kaitlynn answered as she turned to face Beau.

  “How did you come to travel all the way up here?” I asked as I put the nozzle of the fuel dispenser into the tank of our Mustang.

  “Several years ago I was with a small group of other survivors and at that time we heard that there wasn’t any infection in Maine…so me and the others left to try and make it here but the others were killed off one by one along the way in different ways—some of them were killed by those monsters and others died in accidents…there was even one that died of despair.” Kaitlynn answered grimly.

  “You can come along with us if you like—that is as long as you’re not a marauder spy.” I stated with a dark look as I looked her over closely.

  “I’m not a marauder spy—I have no interest in whatever those people are doing around here; I just want to live!” Kaitlynn answered with an offended tone of voice.

  “That’s fine—I just had to get that out in the open as we have had a lot of trouble with those assholes lately…they killed my best friend Noah, his wife Christina and their son Jude back a few weeks ago in a town in North Dakota called Williston.” I stated with a distant look as I thought back on the events of the past.

  “I’m sorry to hear that, but believe me—I have nothing to do with those fuckers.” Kaitlynn answered as small tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

  “I believe her—let’s hurry up here and refuel so we can get to our destination and figure out what we need to know.” Hugo stated as he started pumping diesel into the Eco-Roamer.

  “Welcome to the group—we’re immune to the infection as you will no doubt discover in the times ahead; hold out your left arm.” I commanded as I switched pumping the gas with Sheila as Jennifer handed me the bag that we kept the vaccine inside of.

  Kaitlynn done as I asked and I prepared a spot on her left arm and injected the vaccine into her bloodstream, afterward she looked confused as to the whole process that I had just finished.

  “You guys have a cure to this infection?” She asked as she glanced around at everyone in the group.

  “Yes—we synthesized this vaccine in the Hudson Pharmaceutical building in New York City nearly two years ago now.” I answered as I put the bag with the vaccine back into the trunk of our Mustang.

  Without further delay we were finished pumping the fuel and everyone got back into their vehicles and Kaitlynn chose to ride with my parents, sister and niece inside of the Van—we pulled out of there and headed in the direction of Portland; we arrived there late that same night and seen that the place was in a regular state of ruin. Vehicles were here and there that had smashed into others as well as some that were even more than halfway smashed through buildings—the place was however mostly free of dead-heads which caused many of the group to
speculate on the topic in worried tones; I pulled our Mustang down near the waterfront and I was about to drive toward a plaza ahead when Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe suddenly alerted me to something that was ahead and Jennifer reached over and flipped the headlights as well as the lights on the top of our Mustang off.

  “There’s a whole bunch of those marauders in that plaza over there—it doesn’t look like they’ve seen us yet.” Jennifer stated pointing ahead at what she was talking about.

  Sure enough I could make them out and it looked like they were doing patrols through the streets.

  “Guys—those assholes will find us soon, we need to find a safe location to see if we can’t find out what they are doing here.” Billy stated over the CB.

  “Covert Operations…I’ll go see if I can’t get a closer look—the rest of you guys stay here and stay down.” Hugo stated as he slapped a new ammo clip into his assault rifle.

  I nodded and we all got down behind our vehicles and watched and waited as Hugo slunk off into the darkness toward the plaza where the enemy forces were, we waited for several minutes until Hugo’s voice sounded on my CB radio and I quickly answered it for fear that the enemy forces would hear it.

  “Chaz—this looks like some sort of command station for them—it is heavily fortified and from the looks of things, they have the whole eastern side of the downtown area blockaded off and I think there are significant numbers of dead-heads and other mutations in that sector.” Hugo answered on the other end.