[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “It’s true that we knew sketchy details of what had happened but in no way were we responsible for what those government murderers done to that woman…our orders were to locate and apprehend Nicolas Bowman at all costs—those orders came straight from the President himself.” Hugo answered with a distant look.

  “So let me get this straight—due to your loss of this woman whom I assume meant a great deal to you, you felt like you had a right to release a biological agent which resulted in a global pandemic that destroyed society killing millions of people?” I asked in a growing tone as I turned back to glare at Bowman.

  “What right do you think you have to question me?”

  “The system took everything I cared about away from me!” Bowman shouted in rage as spit flew from his mouth.

  “Don’t act so damned self-righteous, you fucking prick—you were developing mutagenic toxins at the CDC in Atlanta as well as in the laboratories beneath Oklahoma City, Wilkes-Barre and New York City before that young woman was ever killed; that’s the reason why it was top priority to capture you!” Hugo retorted in anger.

  “Why not?”

  “I loved her…but I knew that sooner or later she would be used as a tool to find me—so I birthed a mighty titan that would avenge my love upon her death…and oh how sweet it was to see the results of all of you and the rest of this wretched world’s people dying in agony and then returning as weapons of my divine wrath!” Bowman shouted in a crazed tone as he stared down at us laughing.

  “Yeah…but who gave you the right to judge us?!”

  “We weren’t responsible for what they done to your woman!” Chloe shouted angrily.

  “It is my divine right to judge you pitiful fools—you have caused me so much trouble over the past 11 years but now it all ends—behold—I have someone here who I think you’ll want to see!” Bowman shouted as he pointed to the pyramid structure in front of us while fiddling with a control panel inside of the enclosed room.

  Red lights suddenly began to flash around the structure and the same synthetic voice that we had heard on the levels above sounded with a single phrase—‘Warning, biohazard contamination detected—this is a level 5 threat—sealing off outer hallway.’; we turned as the door we had come through crashed shut and made a loud clanking sound as we were now trapped inside of this room as the pyramid shaped structure before us began to open. I glanced up and seen Bowman take off somewhere out of sight and I knew that we had to go after him—I ran up the nearby steel stairs and tried the controls next to the door that I came to but they would not respond, nor would the door open and the pyramid structure was now fully open as steam rose up out of it; all I could see was darkness and then something massive appeared—it raised itself up out of the containment area and came into view and all I could do was fall to my knees as I looked upon the face of the horror that was now before us.

  “Project Heartbreak now at 100%, adrenaline stabilizers ready—M.I.M.T.W.B.C.A feed disabled.” The synthetic voice stated as the creature turned and looked down on me as it used limbs that were on the sides of its head to hang from the rafters of the ceiling above.

  “A-Angie…how could he do this to you…?” I asked as tears streaked down my face.

  The creatures’ red eyes focused on me and its mouth actually started to move but no human speech came from it—only a horrible wailing screech that made several of the others around me cover their ears.

  “That’s not her Chaz—you know what we have to do!” Kira shouted as she grabbed hold of me and shook me which snapped me out of my inner sorrow and turmoil.

  I nodded and we all scattered as the creature slammed its huge lower left limb down on where we had been standing crushing the steel stairs on that side, I managed to quickly dash out of the way as the thing shot out some sort of a concentrated beam out of its other lower right limb and I returned fire hitting it several times in the upper torso around what had been my deceased wife’s breasts and it roared in anger and started coming after me and that was when several grenade rounds hit it in the back of its’ lower pod and exploded sending black blood and other secretions flying and that was when I stared in disbelief as the creature tore itself free from its destroyed lower half walking on four grotesque limbs toward me dragging its long tail after it. Angie’s legs had melded together and become part of a lower torso-like mass and the grotesque limbs were attached to the bottom of that—she screamed the same horrible sound at me again as she swung her left upper limb at me missing as I rolled out of the way firing more rounds into her as I passed; I was however struck by her tail and sent flying through the air a short ways landing against the wall. A sharp pain shot through my left leg as Chloe and the others ran to me and continued to fire on the creature—I tried to stand but the pain was unbearable and that was when we all looked down and I saw that I had suffered a compound fracture; the bone was protruding up out of my skin and my blood was pouring out of the wound.

  “You’ll pay for that!” Chloe screamed as she stood up and opened fire with the M32 Hammer that she was holding.

  Each grenade round struck the creature in the upper torso knocking it back until it was inside of the containment area that it had come out of—that was when the rounds inside of its body exploded blowing it in half as pieces of it were sent around the room and its black blood splattered all over the area and almost on us; it was still alive as a section of the floor beneath it opened and it fell down into some sort of a pit. We could hear the synthetic voice sound again and this time it was saying one simple phrase—‘Biohazard decontamination in 3, 2, 1—mark’.

  “Get back!” Hugo shouted as he and the others fell back to where I was still sitting in pain on the floor as Amy worked to stop my bleeding.

  Flames shot up out of the pit that the creature had fallen into and its screams could be heard for a few seconds until the room was once again silent.

  “Decontamination complete—M.I.M.T.W.B.C.A Vaccine sample has been released.” The synthetic voice stated.

  “You mean that there’s a vaccine to that too?” Beau asked with a shocked expression as the door that we had used to come into the room unlocked and slid open as well as the ones to the room above that Bowman had been inside of.

  “Let’s get him back to that room with the metal table—there were medical supplies inside of that room that we can use to pop his bone back into place to set it as well as tend to this wound.” Amy shouted as several of the guys came over and lifted me off the floor.

  They carried me through the hall into the room that we had checked first and they put me onto the top of the metal table and started cutting the material away from the protruding bone and the wound on my left leg—that was when I started to feel peculiar, it was a small sensation at first and then it started to become very evident as I started to vomit and choke.

  “Shit—that thing must have infected him with the M.I.M.T.W.B.C.A strain—go find where that vaccine is; it’s probably up where Bowman was before!” Amy shouted as she turned to Beau.

  Beau nodded and ran back through the hallway as I continued to choke on the table—I could feel myself start to change and it wasn’t until a few seconds later that Beau came running back into the room with the sample and it was injected into my bloodstream seconds later; it felt as though my blood was burning as the vaccine counteracted the toxins in my body and soon I felt like my old self again as I sat up on the top of the table with some trouble.

  “We all better have injections of that—we can’t take any chances.” I stated as I grimaced in pain.

  Hugo and the others took what was left of the vaccine sample and took it over to a nearby machine that looked very similar to the one that we had used in the Hudson Pharmaceutical building to create the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin vaccine and within the next several minutes they had over 100 samples of the new vaccine created and it was injected into each member of the group giving them immunity t
o the M.I.M.T.W.B.C.A strain as well—my bone was popped back into place after some trouble and intense pain and my wound was sewed up and wrapped in bandages before a cast was put on my leg.

  “Should we try to continue after Bowman now that this has happened or should we turn back?” Hugo asked in a concerned tone.

  “Yes—we have no choice but to go after him; unless he is dealt with and stopped then this shit will never end!” I answered as Richard and Billy helped me off the table into a pair of crutches that they had found nearby.

  I was able to walk using them as I used my right leg for leverage putting almost all of my weight on it—I tossed the right crutch to the floor with a clatter and gripped my M16 in my right hand.

  “You’re one tough son of a bitch—if that had happened to me, my ass would be in a wheelchair crying like a baby.” Richard stated with a chuckle.

  “I’ll be okay—we’ve got to end this shit once and for all otherwise everything that we have done, everything that we have survived will be for nothing.” I answered glancing around at the others.

  “I agree with you on that—just try to be careful on that leg; we just seen what that asshole threw at us and there’s no telling what else he has up his sleeve.” Beau answered patting my left shoulder.

  “That wasn’t Angie anymore…so I have to think of what we done as setting her soul free—she wouldn’t have wanted to have been here like that and I swear on my own blood that Nicolas Bowman will bleed and soon.” I answered in a voice of rage.

  “Let’s go—he disappeared into a room behind that control panel back there.” Richard stated as he and a few of the others went ahead of me as Chloe helped me walk.

  I took out the CB and spoke into it as a bead of sweat ran down the right side of my face.

  “We’re okay baby, still kicking.” I stated speaking into the receiver.

  “What happened down there baby—you sound like you’re in a lot of pain.” Sheila answered on the other end.

  “Bowman unleashed his latest pet science project on us and we barely defeated it…it was something he called ‘Project Heartbreak’…it was a creature that was formed from Angie’s dead body.” I answered slowly as the thought of what we had just been through raced through my mind.

  “Oh my god…I can’t believe that…I’m so sorry baby—I know what you must be feeling.” Sheila answered on the other end as I could hear her explaining what I had said to Jennifer and the others in the background.

  “I’ve got a busted left leg with a compound fracture—the others took care of it for me and saved my ass from mutating into something ugly by injecting the new vaccine for the M.I.M.T.W.B.C.A strain into my bloodstream…I’m on one crutch so you girls will have to go easy on me when we get out of this mess.” I answered with a chuckle.

  “We will babe—we’ll take good care of you; you guys focus on finding that piece of shit Bowman and make him pay.” Jennifer answered on the other end.

  “We will—that I promise you.” I answered as I put the CB back into my pocket.

  We arrived back in the room where Bowman had been and we had defeated the monster and we climbed the stairs on the left side going through the door—inside was another hallway that went to a small room where an elevator was and I hobbled over and hit the button to call the elevator and shortly after the doors opened and we entered it and waited as it made its descent down to the second sublevel floor; once it had stopped and we had all stepped out we saw that we were faced with a small room with an ordinary looking steel door in front of us—stepping forward I opened it and seen that we were once again facing a long hallway that stretched off to the west. I could see the electronic door at what appeared to be the end and we hurried down the hallway with our weapons ready expecting to walk into a massive room where Bowman would be waiting but instead we came into another smaller section of hallway where the regular elevators that we had used earlier were—directly ahead of us were double doors that had a plate on them that said ‘Auditorium’ and I pushed them open with the barrel of my M16 and we all entered the room and stood in a group as Bowman stood before us at the top of the platform—he had a hateful look on his face and within just a few seconds of us entering he drew a handgun from out of nowhere and fired several shots at us; one of them hit Amy in the chest just above her left breast and the others barely missed the others as we scrambled to seek cover. I opened fire on Bowman with my M16 hitting him multiple times in the chest and neck area dropping him to the platform like the sack of garbage that he was—it looked like he was dead as we all gathered around Amy who was breathing shallow, ragged breathes.

  “D-Did we get him…?” Amy asked as blood poured out of her mouth.

  “It looks that way…do you think that you can make it out of here?” Hugo asked as he knelt down over her.

  “N-No…go on…live and live for me—I can’t…” She answered as she breathed deeply and then ceased to breathe any longer.

  “Damn motherfucker got her in the heart…” Beau stated clenching his fists as we as stood around the body of our fallen comrade.

  “Oh shit—look!” Billy shouted as he and Kayla immediately called our attention to Nicolas Bowman behind us who was back on his feet staring down at us like he was a cat stalking a group of field mice.

  “How the hell…” I shouted as I glanced down at my M16 and then back up at Bowman.

  That was when it hit me—there clutched in his left hand was an empty syringe—he had injected himself with the M.I.M.T.W.B.C.A strain and was now mutating right before our eyes; we watched in disbelief as large curved horns grew from the top of his head and the clothes he had been wearing tore off of him as large, pulsating muscles the same sickening, grotesque color as the limbs on Project Heartbreak had been tore the fabric of his clothes to shreds—large claws grew from his fingertips and his face twisted and writhed. His eyes vanished into his face and his mouth became a large gaping hole filled with fangs and he roared at us—this roar was so loud that it seemed to make the walls around us tremble with fear; he suddenly flung his arms outward sending out some kind of telekinetic shockwave that hit each one of us sending us flying back onto the floor in a heap. I fought to get to my feet through the sheer pain of my leg injury as well as help Chloe up and I looked upon the monster that Bowman had become as it just stood there in the same spot where it had been.

  “I am a god…” It shouted in a guttural voice as it looked like it was preparing to do whatever it had done to us again.

  “Hey—say cheese, motherfucker!” A female voice shouted from behind us getting our attention as well as the monsters’.

  I caught a quick glimpse of Jennifer and Sheila standing there with RPG launchers pointed at the creature—seconds later the rockets flew forward and hit the creature that Bowman had become exploding sending him flying back against the wall where the fire spread and consumed him; as I picked myself and Chloe up off the floor I could see that the left arm of the creature had been blown completely off and black, putrid blood was spurting everywhere as it burned wailing in agony. I embraced Jennifer and Sheila and they helped me back to the doorway where the others were now waiting—I aimed my M16 at the creature and opened fire as did the others and soon it was no longer standing but lying in a heap of gore as the whole entire room on that side burned out of control—Nicolas Bowman was no more.

  “Let’s get the hell out of this place and go home.” I stated as I turned and headed through the door with the help of my women.

  Beau and Hugo attempted to gather Amy’s body but the fires were spreading too quickly and right at the last moment some sort of trap door in the floor opened and her corpse disappeared; Beau and Hugo sighed and rigged together another bomb and planted it on the wall near the door as we all filed out getting back into the elevator heading up to the first floor hallway, I led the way into the entrance hall and met up with my parents and others who had stayed be
hind and we all exchanged greetings and hugs before turning and fleeing out the main entrance—luckily the steel door that had trapped us inside earlier had opened allowing us to leave and once we finally got back to our vehicles I got into the passenger side of our Mustang and sat back trying to keep my leg straight and comfortable as Sheila started the engine; Jennifer and Chloe stashed our gear in the trunk and got our kids into the backseat as well as themselves and we left the area leading our convoy away to the south as Hugo detonated each of the explosives far below inside of what had been Bowman’s lair. Watching the explosions light up the early hours of the night I soon drifted off to sleep remembering all of the things that we had been through, all the people we had lost and all of the places we had been—it was still going to be hard I knew that, but at least now we wouldn’t have to worry about Bowman creating anymore bio-weapons or any more lethal viruses. It took us a few days to get down to Bucharest and we found an abandoned airport that had a Hercules C-130 cargo plane sitting out by itself—Beau knew how to fly planes so we all loaded our vehicles into the cargo hold and then boarded the plane choosing our own spots to settle in and rest as Beau and Hugo took the helm and lifted off taking us away from Romania; sometime after the third day we descended down over what was left of Atlanta and Beau and Hugo landed the plane with minor difficulties and we all got off getting our vehicles out of the cargo hold. It seemed strange to be back in the States and to be almost home after everything that had happened—the zombies and other mutations could be seen here and there as we left and we all knew that there wouldn’t be any end to them any time soon; the zombie apocalypse that Nicolas Bowman had brought on had scarred the world and it would be a very long time before things would start to recover. We arrived back at my family’s home late that same afternoon and everyone got out of their vehicles and checked around the area for signs of trouble, there were only a few gunshots heard as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe helped me out of our Mustang to where I could stand on my crutch—the others immediately set out to setting up defensive structures and over the next several days a concrete wall with a gate was built around the outer parameter and we built a tall wooden fence around the other parts that we didn’t have enough cinderblocks and cement for. Settling in I looked over my leg knowing that it would heal in time and I brought the women I loved into my arms as Remy, Mace and Ember played nearby, we knew that we had a long ways to go before we would see the last of the undead—the fight wasn’t over; but we now had hope that one day it would be and the nightmare that had reduced the world to ruin would end. One day not long after we had completed the parameter walls to protect our homestead from the armies of dead-heads and other mutations that were still running around rampant outside, a small group of survivors arrived outside our front gate and pleaded for help; it looked like they had been on the run for a while.