“It’s Marco…Marco Thompson—dude I can’t believe that it’s really you!” The voice stated on the other end.
“Marco…I haven’t seen or heard from you in over 11 years—how the hell did you end up over here in Germany?” I asked with a look of disbelief.
“Who is he baby?” Sheila asked with a curious expression.
“He was a good friend of mine back in the day—hell—he was almost like a brother.” I answered in deep thought.
“I came over to Germany on vacation with my girlfriend Sarah back before this damn plague went global and afterward I got stuck here.” Marco answered on his end.
“Really?”
“Is she still with you?” I asked raising my right eyebrow in deep thought.
“No…she was killed by those dead bastards during the spring of 2001 and I’ve been trying to survive alone ever since.” Marco answered on his end in a tone that sounded distant.
“What part of Hamburg are you in?” Hugo asked as he and the others no doubt had their CB’s tuned to the same channel.
“Who’s that?” Marco asked on his end with a startled tone.
“They’re my friends and family—we have a convoy of survivors that we’ve been trying to keep alive; we left what was left of the States after learning the whereabouts of the man who is responsible for this shit and we’ve been on the road ever since Trondheim, Norway.” I explained as I stared around at the desolate roadway ahead of us.
“I see, well—to answer your question—I’m inside of a bakery that’s located in a district called Bramfeld; as I already mentioned I don’t know how much longer I can last—those fuckers know I’m in here and sooner or later they’ll get in.” Marco answered on his end in the same distant tone.
“We’re on our way—not sure how long it will take us to get down there though due to the wreckage on the roadway as well as swarms of those dead-heads.” I answered as I sped up a bit passing through what looked like vast countryside.
“Okay…where exactly are you guys headed?” Marco asked on his end in a curious tone.
“We’re headed to a location in the Carpathian Mountains of northern Romania—most likely somewhere north of Brasov.” I answered casually.
“Unfortunately we don’t have an exact location as to where this asshole is hiding but we know that it’s somewhere in that area.” Hugo stated on his end.
“You can count me in if this guy is responsible for all this shit.” Marco stated on his end.
The rest of the trip southeast toward Hamburg was mostly silent and we had arrived in the city by noon that day—it had started storming, dumping torrents of rain down on the city as we pushed through the wreckage of vehicles and the ruins of buildings and other things that barred the way; the zombies and other mutations seen our convoy passing through a park shortly afterward and swarmed in surrounding our vehicles. Jennifer opened fire with the .50 caliber mounted machine gun on her side and that was when a jumper zombie came flying toward the windshield of our Mustang and it hit the steel plating on the outside of the glass with a loud thud and suddenly reached its right hand into the space between Jennifer’s gun and the barrier causing her, Sheila, Chloe and the kids to scream behind us—I quickly drew my .357 magnum and pointed it through the space at the jumper zombie’s head and fired; its head exploded and blood splattered all over the hood and outside of the car. Jennifer collected her wits and opened fire again on the mass of undead surging toward us as I sped forward enough to send the body of the dead jumper out onto the pavement where I ran it over beneath the wheels of our Mustang, I could hear the others revving the engines of their vehicles as I led the way through the mass of dead-heads and other mutations running them down as dozens more fell to the onslaught of our mounted machine gun; finally after several more minutes we made it through to the other side and sped through a large hole in the road that was filled with old, stagnant blood and decaying body parts—the rain was coming down harder now and that was when I caught a glimpse of something flashing in the window of a small nearby building and I turned the wheel to the left heading toward it stopping as a somewhat built man with long blonde hair and a braided beard about the same height as me came running out of the barricaded door toward us.
“Get into the Gurkha, Marco—it is heavily armored and Richard and the others will fill you in on everything that we’ve been doing!” I shouted opening the steel slats on the window of my door as he came to my side of the car.
He nodded and ran back toward the Gurkha where Richard and Morgana were waiting for him, after he had gotten into their vehicle I turned and headed through the city toward the east until finally making it past the outer boundaries of Hamburg altogether—Sheila handed Jennifer the map as she started breastfeeding Darc Aiden and Jennifer looked over our planned route that I had marked on the map back when we had been on the ferry boat.
“The next city that we will pass through will be Berlin.” She stated as she glanced over at me smiling.
The long highway eastward was drab and boring, it seemed like the storm lasted well into the night until it finally tapered off around midnight or so—the others were talking back and forth over the CB telling Marco about everything that we had been through, what we had discovered and the details of all the things that had happened in the past 11 years and it sounded like he was amazed at some of the things that we had been through; I shortly after stopped on the side of the road getting out to rummage through the boxes of food in our Mustang’s trunk as well as step off into the bushes not far off to piss. Sheila and Chloe got out and took a bathroom break in the bushes as I stood guard—it looked like several of the others in the vehicles behind us were doing the same and once that was taken care of I found myself a midnight snack which consisted of a can of mixed fruit in heavy syrup, two cans of northern beans, a can of Vienna sausages and a bottle of beer that we still had from months before when we had lost Noah and his family in the marauder attack.
“Here’s to you my friend…I hope that wherever you are that you’re doing well.” I stated after I had gotten into the passenger side seat next to Sheila as she picked up driving.
“Are you thinking about Noah?” Jennifer asked from the back seat where she fed and tended to Xavier.
“Yeah…it’s been strange all of this time not hearing his voice on the CB and having his help during these times.” I answered as I took a sip of the beer and then set it to the side in the beverage holder before opening my canned feast and digging in.
“It definitely has—at least they’re in a better place now, they’re not having to be afraid of anything or anyone going from day to day hoping and praying that they’ll wake up the next day still breathing.” Sheila answered smiling a sad smile as she stared ahead at the road.
“That’s the plight of all who are still lucky enough to be surviving in these dark days—with the zombies getting more desperate for food than before and the other mutations becoming stronger it’s a wonder that there are any survivors left at all.” Chloe stated from the back seat as she sat next to Remy, Mace and Ember helping them with one of their old coloring books that they had had since I had picked them up at our old home back in Georgia some number of years before.
“Yeah and if Bowman has his way—there won’t be any survivors left at all; the day of vengeance and retribution is coming for him…we will see to that.” I answered as I finished my food and put the empty cans and trash into a nearby plastic bag.
We continued on along our planned route and it seemed like one day passed into another and before long an entire week of travel had went by—we had passed through and left Berlin without so much as looking twice and we had traveled through the southeastern part of Germany in a blur it seemed; we were now only a short distance from Prague, Czech Republic and I sat up in the driver’s seat of our Mustang as I slowed down a bit to go around an overturned semi-trailer that was laying across
the road in front of us—that was when something moderately big caught my attention off to the left and I had to look twice as it moved fairly fast. At first I thought that it was a jumper zombie due to the way that it moved but then the bulk of the creature came into view and I about slammed on the brakes all of a sudden—there before us on the left of the wreckage was a bio-weapon that none of us had ever seen before, this creature was heavily mutated—it didn’t seem to have much of a head and eyes were nonexistent on it but it bore a huge mouthful of jagged teeth at us and a long, tentacle-like tongue whipped out and wrapped around a nearby zombie’s neck and the thing yanked it through the air and into that hungry mouth devouring everything including the clothes that the zombie had been wearing; it had large muscular arms that were twisted and melded together by sickening looking tendons and large razor-sharp claws were on both of its front limbs—its legs looked to be the same and it sported a long tail that looked like its’ tongue did.
“What the fuck is that thing?” Billy shouted as he and Kayla no doubt caught the first glimpse of the thing as they were behind our Mustang.
“I don’t know but the fucking thing just ate one of those dead-heads whole and it’s coming right for us!” I answered over the CB as Jennifer opened fire with the mounted .50 caliber machine gun sending a hail of bullets into the creatures’ torso and head area.
That was when the thing shot out its tongue and wrapped it around the barrel of the machine gun and tore it off of the hood completely leaving Jennifer facing it with a horrified look as she frantically pulled the steel windshield plating in front of her closed.
“Holy shit—it ate your machine gun!” Morgana shouted over the CB.
“We’ve got to get it away from Chaz and his family!” Beau shouted on his end.
That was when we heard the others get out of their vehicles and open fire on the creature but they were soon after forced to retreat back inside of their vehicles as the thing charged at them and struck the outside of the Eco-Roamer making a large dent in the side of the driver’s side door—that was when Marco jumped out of the back of the Gurkha with an M32 Hammer in his arms and he shouted an obscenity at the creature getting its attention before running off to the rear of our convoy away from the vehicles as the thing chased after him—with one swift move just as the creature was leaping through the air toward him with its gaping mouth open he turned and fired three grenade rounds into its mouth jumping off to the side as the thing landed on the pavement where he had been standing; seconds later the grenade rounds inside of its stomach exploded sending fragments of the horrible creature in all directions as Marco fell to the grass covering his head with his hands.
“Yeah—eat that you overgrown motherfucker!” He cheered as he got to his feet.
That was when a dead-head suddenly appeared behind him and sank its teeth into his right shoulder, he screamed in pain and anger as he broke free and turned backing away into the back of the Eco-Roamer where the rest of us were starting to gather—I ran forward and fired a single shot that hit the zombie in the center of its forehead blowing out a cloud of blood and brains as it fell backward into the grass; Sheila, Jennifer and Chloe as well as our kids came running and Sheila handed me the bag that the vaccine was kept inside of and I nodded at Amy handing her a vial of the vaccine as well as the injector gun needed to inject the vaccine from the syringe.
“That thing fucking bit me, man…just leave me here dude.” Marco stated sweat pouring down his face as he cradled his bite wound.
“You’re gonna be fine—we have a vaccine to this zombie plague; it reverses the damaging effects of the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin and gives you a lifelong immunity to it.” I answered with a chuckle.
“Y-You’re serious aren’t you—you’re not pulling my chain are you?” He asked looking up at me.
“No, I’m dead serious—you’re going to be fine; we’ll just need to bandage that wound up and keep it from getting infected.” I answered as Amy prepared a spot on his arm with an alcohol pad and then injected the vaccine into his bloodstream.
His wound was shortly after patched up and I glanced at the chewed up remains of our .50 caliber machine gun that was sitting in the bloody remains of the creature and then everyone got back into their vehicles and I continued driving past Prague and through the southern countryside of the Czech Republic until around dark when we had made it to the outskirts of a small town called Rakvice—that was when Richard’s voice boomed over the CB stating that we should start looking for a place to stop and rest. I soon after found an overpass that went over a small road nearby and the overpass was large and long enough for us to set up defensive positions on both ends to where we could set up camp in the center; I pulled our Mustang up to the front of the formation almost to the other end of the overpass and Hugo parked the Eco-Roamer in the rear near where we had crossed as Billy parked his and Kayla’s hotrod in front of them as my dad brought the van up to sit next to the Eco-Roamer—Richard parked the Gurkha behind our Mustang and then we worked to drag old barricades that we found nearby over to block off the areas where the dead-heads and other mutations would be able to slip through and the others set up tents by tying the rope from their tent poles to the side of the bridge railing. Billy and Kayla collected material to make a fire and placed it in the center of camp inside of a ring of cinderblocks that we had found nearby as well and everyone got into a circle looking around at the landscape around us as the night sky started to fill with bright, gleaming stars.
“This will be safe won’t it?” Kaitlynn asked as she stood next to Marco.
“It should be safe for the time being and we’ll leave as soon as it gets to be daybreak.” I answered as I wrapped my arms around my women as they held our kids tightly.
We settled in trying our best to keep the fire low as my mom and the other women cooked dinner with what supplies we had and after we ate I retired to my tent with Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and our kids while Hugo, Beau, Amy, Yuri and Emily stayed awake on guard duty; we slept fitfully due to the hard surface below the tent and I woke around dawn along with Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe and we got up getting our things and our kids back into the Mustang—there weren’t any signs of the undead which was a nice surprise for a change and the others shortly afterward rose from their sleeping areas and tents and started loading up what had been brought out into the open.
“There weren’t any signs of the dead-heads and other mutations last night but I could hear them all around us.” Hugo stated as he picked up the cinderblocks from around the burnt out fire and tossed them over the edge of the bridge railing.
“What do you guys think that thing was that attacked us yesterday?” Morgana asked as she helped Richard and Kaitlynn gather boxes of food and weapon caches to put back into the back of the Gurkha as well as the van.
“I don’t know but I’m going to call it ‘Glutton’ because of the way it seemed to devour everything it came into contact with—stupid thing even ate our machine gun.” I answered with an annoyed look as I thought back on the previous day’s events.
“There’s something in that weapon cache that we picked up from those marauders we killed back at the castle in Denmark—it’s a Browning M2 .50 Caliber Machine Gun.” Beau answered as he brought out a large weapon that looked extremely heavy holding it in both arms for our inspection.
“Damn—that thing looks heavy…I wonder if it would fit down into the hole where the other one was…” I stated as I took the weapon from him and carried it over to the hood of our Mustang.
I examined the steel platform that the other one had broken off of and looked over the bottom of the new weapon and came to the conclusion shortly afterward that it could be welded on with just a few minutes of work—I turned to Beau and Hugo who nodded and went into the back of the Eco-Roamer and soon after brought out their pressure tank and welding torch; it took them around fifteen minutes to attach the new machine gun to the platform und
erneath the hood of our Mustang and then the bullet belt was hung down through the opening near the dashboard where the passenger sat.
“That really doesn’t look all that different from the one that was originally on there.” Billy stated as he stood nearby with Kayla in his arms.
“It’s close—let’s get out of here now before we’re spotted by those dead-heads and others.” I answered as I got into the passenger seat as Jennifer got behind the wheel and started the engine.
The others moved the few remaining barricades that we had created to protect us the previous night and got into their vehicles behind us following, we traveled throughout the day seeing little to no sign of the undead masses and around the late afternoon of that same day we left the Czech republic altogether passing into Slovakia and making it past a city called Malacky by dark—the landscape and towns that we passed from that point on seemed to have been poverty-stricken areas back in the day and as we got closer to the capital of Bratislava the hordes of dead-heads and other mutations started getting thicker; Jennifer continued driving into a mass of them that were out in the middle of the roadway and I started firing away at them with the new machine gun and it seemed to take care of them well—that was when something huge smashed through a nearby barn and roared menacingly at us.
“Dozer!” I shouted over the CB as I redirected my fire toward the large bio-weapon that we were all familiar with from times in the past.
My bullets tore into the Dozer’ torso and head only pissing it off and that was when I looked in my rear view mirror and seen Beau somehow climb up onto the top of the Eco-Roamer with an RPG launcher in his hands; seconds later the rocket flew out and hit the Dozer in the upper torso and head area blowing it to pieces—Beau knelt down hanging on for dear life as we were all forced to speed up to get away from the surge of dead-heads that were now swarming toward us. I heard Beau fire his large caliber handgun as a jumper zombie leapt up at him—the powerful bullet tore through its head dropping it to the roadway behind us like a ton of bricks; it didn’t take us too long to get away from the horde of undead and Beau was able to climb back down and get back into the safety of the Eco-Roamer before we continued south and as the night dragged on we could soon make out the dark shapes of the buildings of Bratislava and we didn’t stop in the main part of the city for fear that we would have another incident like earlier. We crossed the bridge over the nearby river and continued south out of the city of Bratislava passing the nearby city of Petržalka heading south—the hours seemed to fly by and before I knew it the morning sun had risen in the east and I was waking from sleep that I didn’t remember going into; I glanced over and seen that Chloe was driving beside of me as Jennifer and Sheila were asleep in the back with Xavier and Darc Aiden in their arms as Remy, Mace and Ember quietly sipped on juice boxes that they had been given.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 50
