[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

“First of all—what the hell are you doing out here buck naked playing tag with some female zombie?” I answered as I lowered my weapon.

  Before he could answer I noticed that parts of his body were covered with sexual secretions and there was blood around the corners of his mouth.

  “You were fucking that thing—weren’t you?” Billy asked as he stepped up beside of me.

  “What’s it to you—you killed her, she wasn’t doing anything to you!” The naked man countered in growing rage.

  “You’re a sick, twisted little fucker—you know that?” I answered with a look of disgust as I glanced back at the corpse of the female zombie that this man had been having sex with.

  “Looks like he was not only fucking her, but biting her as well.” Richard stated as he walked over and examined the corpse.

  “What was it—some fucked up honeymoon or something?” He continued as he came over to stand beside of Billy.

  “I don’t have to answer to you—I’ve got to collect her and go bury her now…thanks to you.” The nude man answered as he pushed his blood-covered left index finger to the center of my chest getting the gore all over my shirt.

  “Touch me again and I’ll kill you just like I did your girlfriend over there!” I shouted as I gave him a powerful shove which caused him to fall to the pavement on his naked ass.

  That was when he let out a scream just like the undead masses did and I knew without a shadow of doubt that he was infected—I pointed my magnum at his head and pulled the trigger again; the bullet struck him between his eyes and sent him flying backward to where he landed on the pavement making a puddle of blood. Richard found a set of clothing nearby that had a thick leather satchel next to them and he brought the satchel over and handed it to me, once I had it opened I found a US passport, several wads of cash and a wallet that had a Rhode Island Driver’s License inside of it—the picture matched the crazy naked man that I had just killed.

  “His name was Devin Perry…this license expired over a decade ago—he must have fled here when the shit hit the fan so to speak…what could have happened to make him turn to necrophilia is anyone’s guess.” I answered as I turned toward the others who were getting out of their vehicles.

  “That guy was a fucking loon…I hope that we don’t have to bump into any more people like him.” Billy answered as he turned and returned to the hotrod where Kayla was waiting.

  After the excitement had settled, we continued on down the road and it wasn’t long before we came to what looked like a clearing beside of the roadway—there were several wrecked vehicles nearby as well as a small fire that was burning steadily, as I glanced further to the left my eyes locked on a small but reinforced camper trailer that looked like it had been there for a long time; there were large crates of stuff sitting around the area and as I stared back toward the rear of the camper I noticed that several zombies were strung up by their necks from a tree limb and they were still twitching.

  “Damn…I hope that whoever lives in this place isn’t another lunatic.” Sheila stated as I pulled our Mustang up to the shoulder of the road and put it into park.

  I turned off the engine and stepped outside with my M16 in hand and Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe done the same as did the others of our convoy behind us—that was when the barrel of an assault rifle poked out of one of the windows of the camper and a male voice that was heavily accented called out to us.

  “That’s far enough—who are you and what you do here?”

  “We’re survivors from America…we’re on our way to the Carpathian Mountains region of Romania to settle the score with the man who is responsible for this zombie apocalypse.” I answered as I took a few small steps forward.

  “Is that right?” The voice answered as the barrel withdrew from the window and the door opened seconds later as a large, built man with long brown hair, full beard and glasses stepped out toward us.

  “Yes.” I answered casually.

  I introduced myself and then the rest of my group before the man stepped up to me and nodded.

  “My name’s Yuri Stankevich—I’m former Russian Military specialist.” The man answered smiling.

  “Nice to meet you—we’ve all been through hell and high water to make it this far, we’ve lost close friends and family along the way and we intend to make Nicolas Bowman pay for his crimes.” I stated shaking the man’s hand firmly.

  “You say Nicolas Bowman?” Yuri asked all of a sudden as a strange look came to his face.

  “Yes—do you know of him?” Beau asked as he and the other Covenant One members stepped forward.

  “Know of him, I do—he came to Moscow back in May of 2000 and offered the Russian President samples of some sort of biological agent; he was rejected and kicked out of the country.” Yuri answered in a distant tone.

  “More than likely he was trying to spread his mutagenic toxins throughout the world before he just decided that it would be better off just to release them on the innocent population…the more I learn about what was going on back then the more I want to put a bullet in his head.” I stated with a dark look.

  “The notes that we’ve found in the past kind of suggested that the people who worked with him to create the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin thought of him as some sort of god…they obviously thought that they were doing right by helping him create this virus.” Amy stated in deep thought.

  “That what I thought as well, evidence also suggests that Bowman sold those same samples on the black market—there be no other way that virus spread over world so fast.” Yuri answered as he glanced around the area nervously.

  “What if the hospital in Oklahoma City and the one in Wilkes-Barre weren’t the only development areas?” Sheila asked as she clung to me tightly.

  “They weren’t—I had learned of several more here in Europe as well as in parts of the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australia; those facilities to my best of knowledge destroyed now—but that show Bowman had his hands in many parts of world.” Yuri answered as he glanced at her for a few seconds.

  “Well, we’re going to find where he is hiding and from what the bastard told us on that radio transmission he has a stronghold of some sort in the Carpathian Mountains of most likely Romania; what sort of place this is we don’t know—but it’s going to be a long and dangerous trip.” I stated folding my arms across my chest.

  “I’ll come with you guys—I am skilled ballistics specialist and Spetsnaz; I will aid you in making Bowman pay for crimes against world.” Yuri stated as he placed the strap of the AK-74M Assault Rifle that he held on his shoulder.

  He turned and went over to the nearby crates and gathered a few items before briefly going into his small trailer coming out seconds later with a large black duffle bag, he put the items he had gathered inside of the bag and came over to us—we all got back into our vehicles and Yuri chose to ride with Richard and the few others inside of the Gurkha; we left the area shortly after and crossed a bridge over a nearby river—that was when the trailer exploded behind us and burned out of control as we moved away from it.

  “Don’t be alarmed—I didn’t want people finding my work and using it; there are bad elements around not only here but all of Europe.” Yuri stated over the CB as he was no doubt answering everyone’s question.

  “There are marauders here too, huh?” I asked as I stared ahead at the roadway.

  “Yes…hired mercenaries and hardened criminals from all corners of world—I’m not sure which is worse, them or the zombies that Bowman created.” Yuri answered over the CB in a distant tone.

  “They’re all fucking bad in my book…the sooner we waste Bowman’s ass the sooner this will all end.” Kira stated as Yuri no doubt handed her the CB microphone.

  “Something that we haven’t really discussed is what will happen once Bowman has been dealt with—there will still be zombies and other mutations running ape shit around everywhe
re and there will still be pockets of marauders…we’re really going to have to work to get the vaccine out to what’s left of the survivors so Bowman’s handiwork can die with him.” I stated in deep thought as I thought ahead on things that I hoped were going to happen.

  “He’s right—even if we kill Bowman it’ll all be for nothing if we can’t find a way to undo what he did; we need to find a way to make larger quantities of the vaccine that we synthesized from the Antitoxin Sample.” Hugo added on the other end.

  “That’s going to be the biggest obstacle more than likely—finding a way to undo his work.” Billy stated in deep thought.

  “Of course there’s always the kill every last dead-head that we can find and maybe eventually they’ll start to disappear.” Kira answered with a laugh.

  “Let’s just focus on getting to Romania and finding where that motherfucker is hiding—we’ll deal with whatever happens as it happens.” I answered as I focused on the roadway ahead of me.

  We injected the vaccine into Yuri’s bloodstream shortly afterward and over the next few days we traveled nonstop and finally eventually got to the outskirts of the Norwegian capital of Oslo—the minute we got close to the city I could tell that this place was going to be very bad; hordes of zombies and other mutations swarmed the streets toward us and I was forced to plow straight through them, I noticed that the undead hordes were filled with creatures that we had seen before and killed as well as ones that we had not.

  “We’ve got to find a place to refuel…damn it…this place crawls with these fuckers.” Richard stated over the CB.

  “We’ve got to break through this horde—maybe there’s a station somewhere nearby.” I answered as I gunned the engine of our Mustang running several more over as Jennifer opened fire with the mounted machine gun beside of me.

  After several more blocks we finally got to the other side of the mass of creatures and I glanced in the rear view mirror as the others in the other vehicles behind us followed, I continued down the street a few more blocks and finally found a station where I pulled off the roadway and into the lot next to the pumps—Billy and Kayla ran into the main part of the station to check and see if there was any power as well as the condition of the switch and shortly after returned after having activated the generator and turned on the pumps. The others followed and the Covenant One members propped their weapons on the hood of the Eco-Roamer and watched as sounds of the horde of undead got closer and closer; I stuck the nozzle into our Mustang’s tank and put it on to pump automatically—grabbing my M16 and checking the ammo clip I stared in the direction of the sounds with dread. That was when there was a horrible scream off to my right that sounded like it came from our rear flank, turning I seen one of the same Faces creatures that we had encountered along the roadway when Chloe and I had met; I raised my rifle and opened fire on the creature and that was when a surge of dead-heads charged into the area and tackled Simone biting into her flesh and tearing into it. All I could hear was her screaming as dozens of zombies clustered down over her feeding on her flesh—that was when another horrible scream came from off to the left of the zombies who had just killed Simone as one of the Faces creatures grabbed Evangeline—who seemed to not even be aware that the thing was behind her with its long claw-like fingers. I fired a round into what little of a head cavity that the creature had but it was already too late—the thing ripped into the side of Evangeline’s neck spraying blood everywhere and we all watched in horror as the dozens of horrible faces opened their mouths and bit into her flesh; the creature then used its long claw-like fingers on its right limb and tore Evangeline’s body to pieces before roaring horribly and starting to come toward the rest of us as we fell back toward our vehicles. Yuri shouted a series of obscenities in Russian as he stood on the top of the nearby Eco-Roamer and he opened fire sending a wave of bullets into the Faces creature that caused it to stumble backward away from us—I watched as he pulled out a bottle with a rag sticking out of the top of it and used a cigarette lighter to ignite the rag.

  “Get back!” He shouted as he threw the Molotov against the pavement near the Faces creature and the group of dead-heads that were still eating what was left of Simone.

  The Molotov bottle shattered and doused the entire area with the flammable liquid setting the zombies and the Faces creature ablaze—I grabbed a .12 gauge sawn-off shotgun from inside of our Mustang and cocked it before opening fire on the Faces creature as it was still coming toward us; it stumbled back out into the road as the flames destroyed the zombies and what little was left of Simone and Evangeline’s bodies and several of the others grabbed fire extinguishers from inside of the vehicles as well as nearby around the station and doused the flames until there was nothing left but smoking pavement. I dashed forward and aimed the shotgun at the creature’s legs firing shots that blew them off causing the Faces creature to fall to the pavement of the roadway and struggle to crawl toward me as it still burned out of control—Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe ran forward and up beside of me and they all opened fire on the creature with their weapons until it ceased to move at all.

  “Get back, babes—the gas should be about finished pumping.” I instructed as Jennifer handed me the same M32 grenade launcher that I had used to destroy the first one of the creatures that we had encountered.

  They fell back to the others as I asked and I stepped back as well as the creature stated to move again and I aimed the grenade launcher at what was left of it and fire hitting it in the upper torso—the round exploded almost instantly and after the smoke had cleared I seen that we were faced with a new situation as the same mass of zombies and other mutations that we had plowed through upon entering the city came charging down the hill toward us.

  “Back in the vehicles—we’re not going to survive if we stay here a second longer!” I shouted as I jumped into the driver’s seat of our Mustang and started the engine.

  The others quickly got back into the other vehicles and I led the way away from the station as the others followed close behind.

  “Beau—think you can give them something to remember us by?” I asked into the CB receiver.

  “Yeah, I’ve got something in mind.” Beau answered on the other end as he opened the rear door of the Eco-Roamer long enough to point an RPG launcher out at the station far behind us.

  He fired and the rocket flew into the pump area of the station as the undead surged in around it chasing after us—the rocket exploded creating a massive fire cloud as the shockwave from the explosion spread out around what was left of the station incinerating the undead mass as we sped away toward the southern side of the city; we didn’t stop anymore throughout the city of Oslo and we continued southeast toward the border of Sweden and by nightfall of that same day we had crossed over into Sweden and were getting close to a city called Göteborg and I drove into the night until we arrived at what looked like it had been a luxurious lodge of some sort. I parked our Mustang and got out leading the way with my M16 in hand, Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe followed with our kids and the others parked their vehicles and followed as well with questioning looks on their faces.

  “We’ve got to stop for a bit to see if we can’t find some food supplies—we’re running low.” I answered upon seeing their looks.

  “Alright, but let’s make this fast—after what happened back there I don’t want to be sitting in one spot for very long.” Hugo answered as he stood by the Eco-Roamer with his assault rifle in hand.

  I nodded and led the others inside of the structure while the Covenant One members stayed behind to watch our vehicles, once we got into the main part of the building we seen that the place was littered with trash and corpses—corpses that were both recently fresh as well as ones who had been laying there for over five years; the place was pitch black and we were having to use our flashlights.

  “The food if there is any would be in the kitchen area of this place; looks like it’s this way.” Billy
stated as he and Kayla directed my attention to a nearby set of double doors that had tables and dining chairs piled up against them.

  “I agree, be careful once we get inside of that room—there could be just about anything in there waiting to attack us.” I advised as I pushed to the front of the group followed by Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe.

  “We’ll keep the kids here and wait until you find out if it’s safe.” My dad stated as he and my mom held onto Remy, Mace and Ember as well as Xavier and Darc Aiden.

  Once the chairs and other obstructions had been moved I quickly kicked the door open and led the way inside of the kitchen shining my light around at the various nooks and crannies that were all around—the place was a mess as there were pots and pans scattered all over the floor and as we got further inside of the room we found several corpses of long dead victims who looked to have been chefs at this particular lodge; I noticed a nearby door that was labeled in a Swedish word and I strolled forward and opened it with some trouble to find that it was a pantry. Large boxes of canned and dried goods were stacked neatly against the wall and upon further examination it looked like there was adequate food stock for at least several months—I grabbed the first box that I came to and opened it finding that it was full of imported canned fish from somewhere in the Mediterranean region, I handed that box to Jennifer and grabbed the next one which was full of mixed fruit in syrup. It took the next hour or so to load the boxes of food into the vehicles—most of it was loaded into the back of the 4x4 Van that my dad was driving; as soon as we were done we pulled out of there going south along the Swedish coastline fearing that if we stayed in one place for too long we would attract an army of dead-heads and other mutations. The countryside of Sweden closely resembled the rest of the places that we had passed through—the landscape was very different but the same scenes of death, destruction and decay were all too familiar, I kept my eyes on the somewhat narrow highway that stretched further southeast and before long the morning sun was rising in the east and I realized that I had been lost in thought the entire way—Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and the kids were all still sleeping and I myself yawned loudly as I rubbed my eyes with my free hand. By that time I could vaguely tell by the road signs that we were getting close to the city of Varberg—it was the only part of the sign that I could understand to read.