[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “I agree…a large city such as this one would be filled with dead-heads and other mutations as it was a heavily populated area back in the day; we want to avoid that if all possible.” Beau agreed on his end.

  “I remember seeing tourist brochures back years ago about places to visit in Denmark and Germany and one of the places that stuck out in my mind that was in Denmark was a place known as Egeskov Castle.” Melody stated over the CB after a few seconds of silence had passed.

  “A castle?” Billy asked on his end in what sounded like a surprised tone.

  “That sounds like a good place to hole up, sis—castles are large and well-fortified structures and this one is most likely something of a landmark meaning that it should have sleeping quarters and such.” I answered with a smile as I glanced over at Jennifer and then looked at Sheila and Chloe in the rear view mirror.

  “That’s right—this one more than likely has a moat as well, which will help keep those dead sons of bitches at bay.” Richard answered on his end with an excited tone.

  “Sounds good—we still need not stay long as undead will sooner or later find a way to get to us.” Yuri stated on the other end after several seconds had passed.

  “We still have a long ways to go before we get there—I’m not even sure as to the location of this place, so we’ll have to keep our eyes out for signs that point the way.” I answered as I focused on the road in front of me.

  It wasn’t too much longer before the last rays of the evening sun disappeared into the western sky in front of us and night fell covering the landscape around us in a dark and foreboding blanket—I pushed myself to continue driving though and I was awake long after Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and my kids had fell asleep and I would occasionally hear chatter between the others in their vehicles behind us and I kept myself awake by sipping coffee from our thermos that was only slightly warm; it had been made the other day when we had stopped to rest on the roadway back in Sweden. Before I knew it, I had passed by the town of Ringsted and we were steadily creeping up on Soro—that was when I pulled off to the side of the highway and yawned loudly.

  “Is everything okay baby?” Jennifer asked as she woke and looked over at me.

  “Yeah, I just can’t drive anymore—I’m beat; someone needs to take over for me.” I answered looking over at her and smiling.

  “I’ll take over for you—you go ahead and get some sleep.” Jennifer answered smiling as she opened her door and got out coming over to mine as I done the same getting into the passenger side seat next to her.

  I noticed that Richard had stopped as well as switched driving with Morgana and the others behind looked to be doing the same.

  “I’ll be so damn glad when we find a permanent safe haven to settle in to where we don’t have to live on the road anymore.” Billy stated over the CB seconds later after Jennifer had started driving.

  “No kidding—it’s also hard having to stop and take bathroom breaks when you’re constantly having to run from things that want to make a meal out of you.” Kira answered on the other end.

  “I’ve learned to hold it for long hours for the most part—it’s part of traveling.” I stated into the CB receiver.

  I soon after drifted off to sleep and woke later the next day around noon, it looked like we had crossed the span of water because we were now nearing the city of Odense—that was when my sister’s voice sounded on the CB suddenly.

  “I just figured out where Egeskov Castle is located—it’s located several miles south if the city of Ringe.” She stated on the other end.

  “That’s a bit out of the way then isn’t it?” Hugo asked on his end.

  “I still say that it’s a good place to hole up for a bit—even if we have to come back and backtrack a little in order to continue further west.” Melody answered on her end.

  “It’s not really going to matter much if we have to do a little backtracking—we just need a place to rest and collect our wits after the long trek down here from Trondheim.” I stated into the CB as I placed my hand on Jennifer’s thigh and rubbed it.

  “Alright then, where is this castle located exactly?” Hugo asked after a few more seconds had passed.

  “It’s only a few miles south of the city of Ringe like I said—we keep going south until we come to a road called Rudmevej and then we keep going west until we hit a fork in the road, we turn left and head south until we come to the third road on the right; that will take us to the castle.” Melody explained on the other end.

  We soon after stopped to switch drivers and Sheila took over driving this time and we continued south until passing through the mostly ruined city of Ringe at what seemed to be around 3pm in the afternoon and it took us another 45 minutes to locate the road where we needed to turn off; finally after another half an hour had passed we arrived at the old castle. Our approach was blocked on the right side by a thick grove of trees that made it nearly impossible to see anything beyond the road and I noticed that there weren’t any zombies or other mutations around the area but as we arrived at the parking lot and garden areas near the front of the castle, we noticed that many of the grassy areas were littered with mostly decayed bodies—we were just about to walk around the tall hedge toward the front entrance when I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks and held up my left hand for the others behind me to stop as well; there in front of us heading into the castle entrance were three figures dressed in the chemical warfare gear and they were carrying assault rifles.

  “Damn it—this place is obviously an outpost for marauders, how the hell are we going to get inside?” Billy asked in an annoyed tone as we all ducked behind the hedge out of sight.

  “This sounds like something that we’d be good at—the rest of you guys just wait here and stay out of sight.” Hugo answered as he and the rest of the Covenant One members stepped forward.

  “I’ll accompany them—we must eliminate this enemy stronghold here and now if we hope to take it for our own.” Yuri stated as he stepped forward and joined them.

  “Okay, watch your asses in there.” I answered patting each one of them on their shoulders.

  We settled behind the hedge near our vehicles with our weapons in hand and waited as Hugo led his group around the hedge and out into the open—it looked like they were darting in and out of the cover of various shrubs and decorations that were sitting around near the entrance to the castle and I peeped through the thick hedge in a spot where it was a little thin and I heard the slight sound of a weapon with a suppressor firing and I saw that Yuri had killed the first marauder guard by shooting them through the back of the head and Hugo and the others had grabbed the other two from behind and slit their throats with their knives; they continued inside of the castle and minutes passed until we heard more gunfire and shouting and then I glanced up at one of the tower windows as Yuri pushed what sounded like a female marauder out where she fell at least twenty feet to the concrete making a sickening thud as her head cracked open. That was when the CB that Hugo and the others had taken with them inside sounded with Beau’s voice.

  “Its all clear in here—there were only a few of them surprisingly.” He stated on the other end.

  “Okay—we’re coming in, we’ll bring the vehicles up close to the front entrance to where the food, weapons and ammo caches can be brought inside.” I answered as I got to my feet wrapping my arms around Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe as they held our kids close.

  We got back into our vehicles and brought them around to the front of the castle and then we all started unloading the boxes of food and the weapons and ammo caches and carrying them inside as well as what little personal effects that each one of us had, once we got inside of the massive entrance hall we seen the few bodies of the marauders that had been in there and we were also surprised to find that several large crates full of weapons and other things that looked like they had been stolen from a military convoy were sitting ther
e on the floor; I walked over and examined the crates finding an abundance of grenades, plastic explosives and even a few homemade pipe bombs—the rest of the crates were full of a wide variety of weapons including handguns, submachine guns and assault rifles.

  “Damn…look at all of this stuff.” Billy stated with an awestruck tone as he came over and looked over the weapons.

  That was when Hugo, Amy and Yuri returned coming down to greet us from the upper levels of the castle and everyone gathered around the weapon cache that I had found.

  “This place looks like it’ll be safe for a while—depending on how long we’re planning on staying.” Hugo stated as he glanced at me.

  “Where are the others?” I asked with a look of concern.

  That was when the nearest door to the outside opened and Beau and Desiree came inside and up to the rest of us—it looked like they had stepped outside and found something else nearby.

  “We found a supply truck on the other side of the lot that belonged to the marauders—there was one of them in the back of the truck unloading supplies, it appeared that he didn’t hear the commotion from when we first arrived because he was plugged into headphones listening to some weird sounding music.” Desiree stated as she slung the strap of her assault rifle over her right shoulder.

  “Yeah—we killed him quickly and quietly as to not attract any of those undead fuckers to this location.” Beau added with a chuckle as he wiped fresh blood from his combat knife onto his pant leg.

  “Those assholes must have been just getting here too for them to be that off guard—had they been dug into the structure they could have easily overpowered us.” I stated as I glanced around the room at the things that the enemy forces had been bringing inside.

  “How long are we going to stay here?” Kaitlynn asked with a worried tone.

  “I’m figuring that we’ll stay for at least a week in order to rest up and regain our strength—that way by the time we’re ready to pull out it won’t be so difficult having to pull long hours on the road.” I answered as I glanced around at the others.

  “Sounds good—let’s get this place fortified and settle in, we want it to be safe and secure at all costs.” Richard answered as he and Morgana turned and started carrying boxes of food over into one of the corners.

  The inside of the castle was lavishly decorated with what looked like authentic furniture and other items from the middle ages and it was definitely a sight to behold, further examination revealed living quarters on the upper levels as well as decent vantage points where the fields, roadways and forests around the castle could be seen—I caught sight of a mass of dead-heads moving through a field not far to the east from the lavish bedroom that Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe had chosen for us and it didn’t look like they had become aware of our presence here yet. It didn’t take long to get the entrances and exits to the castle barricaded and we had left our vehicles in spots where they would be easily gotten to when it was time to leave. The rest of that day was uneventful and it seemed a little strange to be in this massive old castle that had been a tourist attraction and something of a landmark before the world went to hell—the others had built a roaring fire in the grand fireplace and my mom had cooked dinner out of the things that we had brought both from what was left of our food stock that I had salvaged from the ruins of the RV as well as what we had picked up more recently; the atmosphere was peaceful and yet there was the dread of what could possibly be lurking outside of the walls. Billy, Richard, Beau and a few of the other guys had found enough loose lumber from a maintenance shed outside to board up most of the inside windows that were fairly big and the rooms with the larger windows that hadn’t been covered were simply barricaded off; I listened to the others talk about various things with Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe clustered around me and soon we retired to the room above that we had chosen and soon after fell asleep. I woke the next day at what seemed like noon and I rose out of bed getting my clothes and gear on as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe done the same before waking Remy, Mace and Ember in the next room as well as Xavier and Darc Aiden—we went downstairs to the main area where the others had been the previous night and seen that most of them were asleep on the floor with the exception of my parents, who were sleeping in one of the sleeping bags that we had found in the abandoned campsite back along the roadway; the Covenant One members and Yuri were all over near the display of a large doll house fiddling with a radio that looked like it had been left behind by the marauders we had killed.

  “Morning Chaz, ladies—we found this radio not far from that weapons cache earlier and a little while ago we picked up bits of a transmission that kind of sounded like a distress call; we couldn’t make out who it was from or where it was coming from though.” Hugo stated as he showed the old radio to me.

  “I wonder who the person was that you heard…did it sound like they were speaking English or Danish?” I asked with a worried look.

  “It was really hard to tell for sure but it sounded like English and it was a man’s voice—that much was certain.” Amy answered as she stood nearby against a doorframe.

  “Keep an eye on this thing and maybe whoever it is will send out another message later on.” I instructed as I turned and headed toward the smell of cooking food with my family behind me.

  We ate and then relaxed until almost nightfall of that same day and that was around the time when the radio that Hugo and the others had found suddenly came to life again—this time the man’s voice could be clearly heard and there was something about it that I recognized though I couldn’t place it in my mind.

  “If anybody is out there listening to this, I need help—I’m trapped inside of an old bakery a few clicks northeast of Hamburg…there’s swarms of those dead fuckers outside of this building and I don’t know how much longer I can hold out—if anyone at all is out there, please help me!” The voice shouted before the message was shorted out by static.

  “There’s something about that voice…it just sounds so familiar to me for some reason…” I stated with a troubled look as I got up and started pacing around the front of the fireplace.

  “Could it have been someone that you knew from back before the outbreak occurred?” Chloe asked as she reached up and took hold of my hand as I passed by her.

  “It’s possible I guess…but I just don’t know of who it could be and why they would be all the way over here in Europe.” I answered glancing down at her and then at Jennifer and Sheila.

  “Anything is possible—this person could have fled to Europe for some reason or another and have been surviving these past 11 years on sheer wits.” Richard answered in deep thought.

  “I know that we haven’t really had much time to rest and I was planning on us staying here longer but I need to find out who this person is and save them if possible.” I stated as I stopped pacing and stood before the entire group.

  “We’re with you, Chaz—let’s go see if we can’t save this guy before those dead and rotting sons of bitches kill him.” Beau stated as He got to his feet and started collecting his gear.

  The others rose to their feet in agreement and everyone started gathering their gear and weapons as well as the supplies that we had brought into the castle as well as what we had acquired, I headed upstairs with Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe as we gathered our personal belongings and gear from the room we had slept in as well as Remy, Mace and Ember’s few things and the baby bags for Xavier and Darc Aiden and then we headed back down where we helped pick up the last of the supplies and loaded it into the backs of the 4x4 Van, the Eco-Roamer and the Gurkha; I could hear sounds of the undead on the wind that was blowing through the nearby trees and brush and I knew that we had maybe a few minutes before they would be here trying to swarm us—I got into the driver’s seat of our Mustang and started the engine turning on the headlights as well as the overhead UV lights on the top of the roof and I waited as my women got inside with the kids and
then I started out toward the roadway heading back the way we had come. After several long hours we passed the western city of Middelfart and crossed over the bridge to the next and largest part of Denmark passing through the next city of Snoghøj and continued west until I passed the city of Kolding heading south; I glanced over at Sheila in the rear view mirror as she studied the map of Denmark closely.

  “I hope that we don’t have to turn off on any more of these roads—all of this is a bit confusing at times.” I stated with a chuckle.

  “No babe—the next two big cities that we’ll pass are called Rødekro and Aabenraa; we’ll pass right between the two of them and then after that it’s a straight shot almost south until we hit the town of Padborg which is near the German border.” Sheila answered as she showed the map to Jennifer who was sitting beside of me.

  “I’ll be glad when we can find out where exactly in Hamburg that this guy is signaling from.” I answered as I focused on the roadway ahead of me.

  By early the next morning I had gotten my convoy past the German border and it seemed different knowing that we had passed into another country completely when we had been in Denmark for several days already; the roadway in front of me was littered with wrecked vehicles and large groups of zombies and other mutations were starting to appear along the road—that was when Hugo’s voice sounded over the CB suddenly startling us slightly.

  “Chaz, turn your CB to channel 4—that guy is on the radio again.” Hugo stated on the other end.

  Jennifer grabbed our CB receiver and switched the channel and we listened as the guy’s voice was coming in clearly—he sounded even more desperate than he had hours before; Jennifer handed the receiver to me and I spoke into it.

  “Hello—my name is Chaz Watkins, who am I talking to?” I asked loudly into the microphone.

  “Chaz—seriously…is that really you?” The voice answered after a few seconds had passed.

  “Yes—but who is this?” I answered again this time turning up the volume on the side of the receiver so I could hear better.