We had to be very careful as the slightest noise would alert the enemy as to where we were and I knew that we couldn’t afford being captured again; finally I found what looked like a locker room below that had weapons and body armor that was visible from where I was—I carefully climbed down and landed on the floor to find that the room was empty for the time being and I caught Jennifer in my arms as she dropped down, then Sheila and then Chloe. Morgana, Jamie and Richard dropped down last and we all got into a circle trying to figure out what we were going to do about our situation. I glanced around and noticed that there was another chamber nearby that looked like the one we had woken inside of and I walked inside of the room and noticed a young couple bound to the ceiling rafter as we had been and as I looked them over I heard Sheila gasp—turning toward her I watched as she went up to the young man and worked to get him down; I joined her and got the young woman next to him free and once the two were awake and on their own two feet Sheila embraced the young man in an excited way.
“Who are they, baby?” I asked as I looked from Sheila to the young man and then at the young woman.
“This is Joshua—my youngest brother—I thought for the longest time that something bad had happened to him as we lost contact with him years ago not long after the zombie apocalypse first happened.” Sheila explained as she turned to me.
“I see, well—I’m glad that we found him.” I answered as I introduced myself, Jennifer and Chloe and then Richard, Morgana and Jamie to the two of them.
“Nice to meet you guys—my name is Joshua Smith and this is my girlfriend Nicole Whitlock.” The young man identified as Sheila’s youngest brother stated with a smile.
“I hate to interrupt but we need to be getting out of here.” Richard stated in a technical tone that drew my attention back to what we had been doing.
“We’re coming with you—those whack-job motherfuckers caught us and chained us up in here…they were talking about using us for their experiments with something called the ‘Redeemer Strain’.” The young woman named Nicole stated with a disgusted look as they followed us back into the locker room where we had first dropped down.
“It might be a good idea to put on their gear and use it as a disguise to slip out of here…” Richard stated in deep thought.
“That sounds like a good idea—let’s get changed so we can get the fuck outta here.” I answered with an enthusiastic tone.
I grabbed a thick suit of what I recognized as Kevlar and I strapped it on and then placed the hooded gas mask over my head adjusting the breathing hose and the visor to where I could see—I helped Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe with their disguises as the others got into theirs and after around five or six minutes we were all suited up and I grabbed several different assault rifles and handed them to the others; I grabbed a Dragunov Sniper Rifle and slung it over my shoulder before grabbing what I recognized as an AR-15 but this one was enhanced with laser sighting and a suppressor at the end of the barrel—I sat it aside and grabbed another one that was a Steyr Aug 77 assault rifle. I handed it to Sheila and took the AR-15 into my hands, Chloe found two magnums that looked almost identical to the ones she had had before we had been captured and she loaded them and placed them into the holsters at her sides and I tossed her another Dragunov as the others finished up gathering weapons and ammo.
“Let’s get out here—try to act natural.” I stated through my helmet.
The others followed me and we passed through a shower room that appeared to be empty for the time and we passed by the entrance quickly, I thought that I saw the shadow of someone swiftly run by on the other side of the room but when I looked there wasn’t anyone or anything there—we continued on and eventually reached a side service entrance that was lightly guarded; I led the way past them and across the street into the dark town.
“That place was pretty well fortified…I hope that the others don’t come stumbling upon it looking for us.” Richard stated as he glanced back at the structure as we rounded a building that was made of bricks.
I could hear the sounds of the undead not far off and I knew that we had to not only get far enough away from the marauder compound but also the area where a horde of dead-heads and other mutations could be tearing through at any given time—not long afterward I found a military jeep that was up on the sidewalk; it had crashed into a fire hydrant but seemed to have only minor damage to the front bumper. I got behind the wheel and searched for the keys but they weren’t in the ignition—that was when Jennifer called my attention to the corpse of a long dead soldier that was on the road nearby; he was now nothing but tattered clothes and bones but he had the ignition keys on him and I was able to get the jeep started as the rest of the group climbed into the back I quickly sped away from the area and got onto highway 151 and headed south through what was left of the town of Ringgold and after several long minutes of high speed I finally eased off the gas as we were now deep in the country passing by areas that had once been suburban. That was when the engine of the jeep started to sputter and die and I was forced to stomp on the brakes as the jeep rolled off the road into the nearby ditch almost—I glanced down at the fuel gauge and seen that it was empty.
“That’s as far as we’re going in this thing—guess we better get going.” I stated as I grabbed my AR-15 and led the way away from the jeep followed by my women and the other six.
Over the next twenty or so minutes we made it to County Line Road and we stopped to catch our breath.
“It’s going to take us forever to get back to the homestead at this rate.” Richard stated in an aggravated tone.
“I know but we don’t have any other choice.” I answered as I glanced back at him.
“Hang on…there’s headlights coming from that direction…” Sheila stated as she pointed to the roadway ahead of us going south.
“Shit—that could be a marauder detachment…we better get off the road!” I shouted as I ran off the shoulder of the road into the thick grass.
The others quickly followed and we got down into the tall grass and waited as the vehicle slowly got closer—that was when I recognized the oncoming vehicle as being an Eco-roamer and only one thought came to mind; I got up out of the grass and walked out onto the road despite the urgent calls of the others to come back and that was when the vehicle slowed down and stopped and several figures got out of it as the driver turned on the bright overhead lights on the top of the cab illuminating me and the entire area. Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe came to my side as well as Richard, Morgana, Jamie, Joshua and Nicole and we looked on the figures as they approached us with their weapons in hand and that was when I saw that it was Hugo, Beau, Zaine, Remy, Mace, Ember and Regan—another vehicle pulled up behind the Eco-roamer and two more figures approached us that I recognized as being Billy and Kayla.
“What did you motherfuckers do with my sister, Chaz and the others?!” Billy shouted angrily as he came up to me spitting with rage.
“Nice to see you too, Billy.” I answered in a casual tone before taking off my helmet and gas mask seconds later.
“Chaz—!” Beau exclaimed with a relieved tone as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe removed their helmets and masks before Richard, Morgana, Jamie, Joshua and Nicole done the same.
Remy, Mace and Ember ran to us and embraced me as well as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe and they looked like they had been crying.
“We feared the worst when we found your burnt-out Mustang at the ruins of that barn.” Mace stated as the others approached us.
“Joshua…is that you?” Billy asked as he stepped forward and embraced him tightly.
“Yeah, it’s me—been surviving on the run now for many long years and Nicole and I were recently captured by those marauder assholes; Chaz and the others here saved us and we all escaped together.” Joshua answered with a smile.
“We were captured by marauder forces right after we fled from that burning barn…we woke u
p in a warehouse like place only to come face to face with Darkbourne…” I explained as everyone gathered around us.
“Really…did you figure out who the asshole is?” Hugo asked in a curious tone.
“Yeah…it’s Bowman.” I answered with a dark look.
My answer was followed by confused chatter and looks of disbelief from the others and I couldn’t blame them—I was still in just as much shock over what we had learned as they were hearing it.
“How the fucking hell is that even possible?”
“We killed that son of a bitch in his Romanian underground facility!” Billy stated in a disbelieving tone.
“From what he told us, Bowman had created a clone of himself a few days before we got to his facility and he had hidden it away in a section of the underground area that was protected behind a blast door…the clone was then recovered by his marauder forces and brought back to the States—they injected it with both strains of the virus and made it into what it is now…all I could see was red glowing eyes from underneath a black hood.” I stated as I thought back on the foreboding figure that had appeared before us.
“He was going on about planning to use us as test subjects for some new viral strain he called ‘Redeemer’…whatever it is, it sounds like it is very dangerous.” Jennifer added as she wrapped her arm around my waist.
“We better get back to the homestead and let the others know what has happened—it’s not safe to be standing out here in the open.” Hugo answered as he turned and got back into the driver’s seat of the Eco-roamer.
I led the way to the back of the Eco-roamer and opened the door allowing the others with me to get inside and then I followed closing the doors tightly; it seemed to take only a short time to finally make it back to the homestead and my parents, sister, niece, Darc Aiden, Xavier and Scarlet all embraced us and it felt great to be back in the safety of our homestead. Once the excitement had calmed down a bit we all gathered in the yard in front of our house before the fire pit which was burning steadily and we discussed what had happened—Jamie, Joshua and Nicole were all given shots of the vaccines and then everyone settled down in front of the fire; my mom had been using the roasting spit over the fire to cook a slab of venison that my dad had shot and killed and the smell of it was tantalizing me since it had been many long hours since I had eaten anything.
“I’m glad that you guys were able to escape from that place and get back here—it worries me though on how close those marauders and now this Darkbourne character are to our camp here.” My dad stated in a worried tone.
“I don’t know if that place is actually Darkbourne’ stronghold or if it was just a research and viral development facility…when we were crawling through the air ducts in the ceiling we seen some pretty messed up shit—there were marauder scientists and bioengineers in containment suits working on viruses and I’m sure that they had those creatures in there somewhere for their experiments.” I answered in deep thought as I wrapped my arms around Jennifer and Sheila while bringing Chloe close.
“So this Darkbourne is really Bowman…?” Kira asked from nearby where she sat eating a few pieces of the venison as well as some boiled garden vegetables.
“Yes—it started out as a clone of him and then became what it is now when it was brought back here to the States and injected with both strains of the virus.” I answered as I glanced over at her.
“You mentioned something about a new viral strain that they just developed…what was it called again?” Hugo asked turning to me.
“The Redeemer Strain…all we know is that Darkbourne, Bowman—whatever you want to call him planned to use us as test subjects for this new strain; what the hell it is or what it does I don’t have a clue.” I answered in deep thought.
“We should strike back at them for what they done to not only you guys but also to Joshua and Nicole—maybe there are still military vehicles over at Fort Benning…” Billy stated as he turned and glanced around at the others.
“That’s close to what used to be Columbus, Georgia…it would be a dangerous trip down there and it might not even pay off…but I agree with you—we need to strike back and destroy that facility in Ringgold before they decide to send an army down here against us.” I answered after several seconds had passed.
“We need to send only a small to medium sized group to check and see if there is anything we can use—the rest stay here and keep watch of the place; if this camp falls then there won’t be anything left to return to.” Hugo stated as he got to his feet and strolled over toward the well house where he stood looking up at the stars in the night sky.
“I’ll go—I know how to get there and I have a good idea on what we need to look for and bring back as I have been there before.” Billy stated folding his arms across his chest.
“I’m with him—we should bring back as many vehicles and weapons as we can.” Kayla stated as she glanced at Billy smiling.
“Covenant One will aid you guys while we stay here and defend this camp.” I stated as I glanced at Hugo who nodded.
The Covenant One team had recently begun to rebuild its ranks and Richard, Morgana, Jamie, Kira, Yuri, Billy and Kayla had just joined—I knew that even with their numbers it would be a difficult task to make it all the way to Fort Benning just to see if there were any military vehicles and aircraft there but I knew that we didn’t have much of a choice; we had lost both the Mustang and the Gurkha and we needed a means of escape in case our homestead was overrun.
“Proceed with the plan in the morning, I’m going to turn in for the night—all of that crap that we went through earlier has drained me.” I stated as I got up and left the fireside headed into the main house.
Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe followed me and they soon after put Darc Aiden, Xavier and Scarlet to bed before coming to bed where I was waiting—each of them stripped their clothes off until they were nude and they climbed into bed with me; I made love to each of them and then we all fell asleep as hints of the morning were starting to show. Hours later we woke to the sounds of the Eco-roamer as well as Billy and Kayla’s hotrod starting up and we got dressed and headed downstairs and out into the yard to see them off—they had divided the few boxes of ammo that we had left and were loading the other half into the back of the Eco-roamer and they were gearing up in their tactical vests; Hugo and Beau came over to me and my women and they patted my shoulder warmly.
“We’ll return as soon as we can, hopefully none of those dead-head assholes or other mutations will breech the walls—not to mention those marauders.” Hugo stated as he turned and headed toward the driver’s side of the Eco-roamer.
“Be careful out there and don’t take any chances—if you run into more than you can handle out there, get back here as quickly as you can.” I instructed as I followed him over to the side of the Eco-roamer.
“Will do—you guys take care here too.” Hugo answered as he got into the Eco-roamer and led the way up to the front gate.
I followed as did Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe, Marco and Regan and we opened the gate for them and then closed it back locking it after they had departed.
“I sure hope they are careful out there…we went out for ammunition supplies in Lafayette and look at what happened to us…” Sheila stated in a worried tone of voice.
“I know baby, I have faith that they’ll be fine though—those Covenant One members are tough as nails and they can handle themselves.” I answered as I wrapped my arm around her stroking her hair.
“It also kind of leaves us vulnerable here—that’s over half of our group that’s with them.” Regan stated from behind us.
“We’ll manage, we just need to keep our eyes peeled and make sure that none of those dead-head sons of bitches or any marauders breech the walls—we’ll take shifts on the watch towers.” I answered as I turned and led the way back toward the houses.
As the day dragged on I started to hea
r sounds of the undead on the wind and it sounded like they were coming from the southeast, I climbed up onto the top of the southern watch tower and took out my binoculars gazing through the dense trees and fields and that was when I saw it—an old, beat up looking Volkswagen Bug was speeding through the field and as I adjusted the lenses on my binoculars I seen that the top and part of the hood of the Bug was covered with dead-heads; the driver looked to be desperately trying to knock them off of his vehicle as he was swerving and going through low hanging tree branches but they were still there and I could now hear the driver shouting. I couldn’t help thinking back to the time back in the very beginning when I had tried to do the same thing when I had been in the backwoods of Shawnee, Oklahoma with Angie—I quickly snapped back to the present as the driver smashed the front of the Bug into a tree a few hundred feet from our wall; the impact of the vehicle hitting the tree sent several of the zombies off the top of the vehicle and onto the ground and I saw the driver open their door and get out running over to the base of the wall.
“Hey—is there anyone up there?!” He shouted as he strained to both look up as well as kick at the dead-heads that were already up and trying to attack him.
I stood at the edge of the tower and aimed my AR-15 down at the zombies and I opened fire putting rounds in their heads and after I had fired several shots I noticed that the ones who had been on the top and hood of the Bug were dead but more of them were coming out of the nearby woods and there were other mutations mixed in with them.
“Get up here—quickly!” I shouted as I tossed a knotted rope down to the man and watched as he quickly climbed up it.
He had almost reached the top when he slipped and started to fall to the ground below but I managed to grab hold of his arm and pull him up onto the top of the tower—Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe came running down below on our side of the wall and they called up to me with concern in their voices.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 57
