“I agree…I think that now that we have the vehicles and the means to attack his Ringgold facility that we shouldn’t waste any time doing it—we can’t sit here and ponder these things forever, we have to know if what we have done in the past over the years has had a purpose.” My dad stated in that wise tone of his that showed his years.
“We hit them at first light—get some sleep everyone.” I instructed as I got up and headed toward the front door of the house followed by Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe.
After we had put our kids to bed and fell asleep ourselves the night passed off very quickly and I woke the next morning to thunder—rain was pouring down outside of our bedroom window and by the looks of it, it was going to be a real soaker; I got dressed and headed downstairs grabbing a paper plate of fresh vegetables as well as a cup of water and I then headed outside over behind the house to the shed where I walked up to the door unlocking it. The young women was awake and sitting on a crate that was in the far corner of the room—she seen me and steadily backed away, I could tell that she was afraid of me and I sat the plate of food on a wooden crate near the door and gazed at her intently; she had pale green eyes and lips that came to form a pout.
“I’m not going to hurt you…you seem like you have been through a lot of shit over the years, hell—we all have…can you tell me your name?” I asked as I stared directly into her eyes.
She made no effort to speak and even seemed to try and add more distance between herself and me, feeling that what I was trying to do was pointless I turned away and headed out the door—that was when I heard a voice behind me say one word…April. I turned back toward her and seen that she was coming up to me and it seemed like maybe she was ready to open up—she sat down on the edge of the wooden crate next to the one I had left the plate of food on and she started talking.
“My name is April Deveraux…I’m from what used to be Las Vegas…I lived in a hotel there with my mother and younger brother…after they were killed by those zombie things I was left to fend for myself—I learned how to fight and defend myself and I held out against those things for many long years.” She stated in a distant tone.
“I’m sorry to hear about your mother and younger brother…I know what loss is all about.” I stated as I turned to stare off into space.
“In 2011 not long after my 19th birthday I was captured by men wearing gas masks who were dressed in heavy body armor and survivalist gear…they took me to their camp and made it a game to rape me every night before they drank themselves asleep…I managed to get their weapons and ammunition one night after killing them and I escaped—I headed east hoping to find a place where I wouldn’t be found—not only by them but by those creatures; when your friends showed up at Fort Benning I figured that they had come for me—and that they were going to pick right back up where they had left off, that I would never stop being raped…” She stated as tears started to flood down her face.
“Nothing like that is going to happen to you ever again—I promise. The people here at this homestead are good people and we all look out for each other; if you are willing to cooperate and get to know us you will see for yourself.” I stated as I stared down into her tear filled eyes.
“I-I will cooperate with you and your friends here…I’m tired of being alone—I just want to live a life that is worth living and not have to live in the fear of my past.” She answered as she got to her feet and stepped up before me.
I drew my combat knife and cut the wrist bindings from her which allowed her to throw her arms around my neck where she wept for several seconds before I turned and noticed that Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe were approaching—I turned to them and informed them on what I had found out about the young woman and they came over and introduced themselves to her; over the next half hour the others got acquainted with April and Yuri stepped up before her and apologized for kicking her in the face the previous night.
“It’s okay…though I have a bad headache from the experience I can’t blame you—I had just bitten you and you were acting out of anger and self-defense.” April stated as she stood before Yuri.
“We’re getting ready to attack the marauder facility in Ringgold where we were being held captive not long ago—if Darkbourne is there then it will be a chance to settle the score with him as well.” I stated as everyone gathered before me.
“I doubt he will be—let’s not forget that he started out as a clone of Nicolas Bowman and Bowman was a coward.” Beau stated as he headed toward the A-10 Warthog.
Emily followed after him and the two of them shared kisses before he climbed up into the cockpit of the jet, the rest of the group who were going to participate in the attack on the Ringgold marauder facility suited up and got their gear and weapons together—I climbed inside of the T-90S Battle tank and looked over the controls; after a few minutes of going over the controls on the operator’s console I felt like I was ready to lead the attack, Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe climbed inside of the tank with me and Jennifer took the controls for the massive gun torrent that was the tank’s main weapon. There were plenty of shells inside of the control room of the tank and room enough for each of them to sit behind me, I patched into the radio of the tank and I locked onto the CB frequency that we were using and I listened as Billy and Kayla got into the cockpit of the Cobra Gunship and fired up the engine lifting off into the air over the buildings of the homestead—I heard Richard, Morgana and Jamie state that they were going to use the Gatlin Tank and then Hugo and Yuri stated over the radio that they were taking the M1134 Stryker and several of the others including Desiree, Joshua, Nicole, Regan and Zaine were going along to ride inside of the APC; the rest of the group would stay behind to hold down the fort and I glanced over at April and she nodded at me smiling as Marco tossed her an M60 machine gun.
“We’ll keep this place safe—you guys get what needs to be done and get back here in one piece.” Marco stated as he patted my shoulder before jumping down as I closed the operator’s hatch on our tank.
I led the way out of the gate that Marco and a few of the others closed once everyone else in the vehicles behind me had exited and I led the way forward at an accelerated speed down the roadway toward the town of Lafayette—it took us around a half hour to reach the city limits and I smashed through old barricades that had been set up over a decade before, crushed old corpses and destroyed wrecked cars and other vehicles; the dead-heads and the other mutations had taken an interest in our convoy and they were starting to cluster up in front of our tank. I ran most of them over but then we heard the sound of an approaching dozer, the ground was shaking as the massive abomination crashed toward us through what was left of a brick house that looked to have burned down years before.
“Let’s give that big motherfucker a taste of our main gun.” I stated as I turned and glanced at Jennifer.
She winked at me and Sheila and Chloe loaded a shell into the torrent and Jennifer aimed it at the oncoming dozer and she fired—the powerful blast from our gun torrent hit the dozer and blew it to pieces showering the area off to our left with its gore; I could hear the others inside of the M1134 Stryker open fire with their mounted machine guns and after several more minutes of plowing through what was left of the horde we continued on toward our target destination. By the time that the sun had started to set in the western sky we were getting close to the outer parameter of the enemy structure—I could see large parameter guns that were mounted on the towers and walls and I knew that we wouldn’t ever get close as long as those stood.
“Shit—there are anti-aircraft batteries on the walls as well…Beau isn’t going to be able to get close to that place as long as those are standing and neither will Billy and Kayla.” I stated as I stopped in the middle of the roadway and I stood up and opened the operator’s hatch to gaze at the situation with my binoculars.
“Beau—abort full attack, there are AA batteries on the walls; same to you, Billy.” Sheila
stated into the radio receiver.
“Damn it…how are we going to attack them then?” Billy asked on his end of the radio.
“Hold tight, I’ll take care of that.” I answered as I came back down closing the operator’s hatch and getting back into my seat.
“Target the first set of AA batteries on the front right.” I commanded as I drove a few feet forward and then stopped.
Jennifer did so and the she fired and the round from our gun torrent hit the top of the outer parameter wall causing a large explosion that completely destroyed that section of the wall as well as the AA batteries that were in that area—she then aimed the gun at the ones on the left and she fired again destroying them as well; that was when I heard bullets hitting and ricocheting off the outside of our tank and I looked at the screen nearby and seen that several large armored trucks had appeared in the roadway ahead of us and dozens of marauder ground forces were unloading from the trucks and setting up blast barriers as they lined up in a firing line against us. Richard pulled the Gatlin Tank up beside of ours and opened fire with their torrent sending a massive hail of bullets into the front lines of the marauder ranks causing hundreds of them to fall to the pavement dead—the bullets hit the armored trucks and caused them to explode violently; I started forward again and that was when Zaine’ voice came onto the radio nearby.
“Guys, there should be another set of AA batteries on the top of the main parameter wall—those should be the last ones and once those are destroyed they will be vulnerable to an air strike.” He stated on his end of the radio.
“Let’s hurry up and destroy them so we can blow this shithole wide open—we need to get inside and figure out what those assholes have been doing.” I answered as I drove our tank forward through what was left of the enemy blockade that had been destroyed moments before.
That was when the sentry guns on the inner wall opened fire on us and I could hear the bullets hitting the outside of our tank—the lights dimmed a bit and I knew that even though we were heavily armored that we wouldn’t hold out forever against concentrated gunfire; Jennifer quickly targeted the first sentry gun and fired our gun torrent at it destroying it in a cloud of fire that sent the debris of the destroyed weapon into the air in all directions. Sheila and Chloe reloaded the torrent and Jennifer targeted the second one and fired again destroying it as well leaving us unhindered as I proceeded through the entryway and into the main part of the above-ground facility where the last two AA batteries could be seen—we fired on them again and after two more shots both sets of them had been destroyed; I could hear the alarms of the facility around us sounding and dozens of marauders with heavy weapons dashed out of a building ahead of us and several of them got behind a mounted Gua-19 Gatlin Gun and started firing at us. Several more came toward us with weapons that I didn’t think too much of until I seen that they shot waves of searing flames at us—the top part of our tank and the gun torrent was already burning and the room around us was starting to fill with smoke.
“Fuck…we’ve got to do something to douse those flames above or else we’re gonna die in here from the carbon monoxide!” I shouted as I grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and stood up out of the driver’s seat.
That was when I heard Richard pull his Gatlin Tank up beside of ours and I heard them open fire with their gun torrent, this gave me the chance to open the operator’s hatch and douse the flames with my fire extinguisher—enough to where the fire wasn’t burning on the outside of our tank anymore; Richard had hit the marauders with the flamethrowers killing them and causing their fuel packs to explode shortly after and the only problem we had at this point was the few marauders shooting at us with the mounted machine gun several hundred feet in front of us. The smoke from the fire had cleared out of the operator’s compartment where I sat with my women around me and I pulled the hatch closed again, I pulled forward again and we could hear the bullets from the machine gun torrent hitting the outside of our tank and that was when Jennifer aimed our main gun at the target and she fired—the whole front of the compound where the machine gun torrent had been exploded and part of the roof of what looked like the warehouse where we had been taken had fallen in; that was when I glanced at my monitor nearby and seen that another large mass of marauders were heading straight toward us—I could make out heavily armored cyborg soldiers at the front of their ranks and I remembered what Zaine had said about the marauders he had seen before fleeing from them.
“Beau, Billy, Kayla—now is a good time to get in on this shit.” I stated over the CB radio.
We didn’t have to wait long before Beau came screaming down out of the mid-afternoon sky with his guns blazing—the powerful rounds from the A-10 Warthog tore into the cyborg soldiers destroying them and Beau passed over flying to the north as Billy and Kayla descended down as well and fired several Hydra 70 rockets down into the mass of marauders who had turned to fire at Beau who was now out of their range; the rockets hit their targets and caused a large explosion that destroyed that entire area leaving the area filled with smoke and fire that was quickly spreading.
“Let’s get inside and find the information that we need—Beau, keep circling the area and if you see any kind of aircraft attempt to escape, you know what to do.” I stated over the CB as I parked our tank shutting down the engine and the electronic devices.
“You got it, Chaz.” Beau answered over the radio.
I grabbed my weapons and Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe done the same and I climbed out of the operator’s hatch first and then helped the three of them out afterward—Richard, Morgana and Jamie climbed out of their tank nearby and the others inside of the M1134 Stryker done the same as Billy and Kayla landed their Cobra Gunship nearby and shut the engines down; they climbed out with their weapons ready and I waited until everyone was before me and ready and then I turned and led the way inside of the facility. The moment we entered we seen that the building around us had sustained heavy damage from the fighting and parts of the ceiling had fallen in making parts of the structure difficult to traverse through—I finally found the locker room were we had put on the enemy outfits as disguises before we had escaped earlier and we all looked around.
“This place is fucking deserted…where the hell did those rat-bastards go?” Richard stated as he used his flashlight to glance around the area.
“Probably hiding…trying to lure us into a bottleneck type of ambush—we better be careful in here.” I answered as I led the way toward what I recognized as a laboratory area where viral research was performed.
The others followed and the area opened up inside a massive wide-open space were all sorts of machinery and lab equipment was—there was a large amount of what I soon after realized were stasis chambers, papers and notes were scattered all over the place and as we looked over the area more and more I couldn’t help thinking how much this place looked like the underground areas of the Oklahoma City hospital had looked—deserted and dead.
“I bet you anything that Darkbourne has tucked tail and fled—he’s really not any different than the original Bowman…too chicken-shit to stand up to a fight.” I stated in a loud enough voice that echoed throughout the empty spaces around us.
“Well, I kind of figured that he wouldn’t be here waiting for us—but we do need to find some kind of information regarding this Redeemer Strain.” Hugo answered as he walked over to a computer console that seemed to still be on.
He pressed several buttons on the keyboard and waited as we all gathered around the console—seconds later a file with detailed information popped up and I skimmed over the technical data with a sense of deep confusion; that was when Desiree stepped up and started looking over the complicated data and seconds later she turned to the rest of us—to me mainly.
“These are notes and technical data on the Redeemer Strain, it looks like it is all here—we’ll need to find a way to copy the data or take it one.” She stated in deep thought.
/> “Use this—it should be big enough to hold the data.” Hugo answered as he handed her a 64 GB flash drive.
She inserted it into the side panel of the console as she sat down and then she started proceeding with the copy—that was when bullets tore into the glass barrier behind us to the left and I quickly turned and seen several marauders advancing toward us; they were heavily armored and were wearing the gas masks with the visors that showed as red. I grabbed Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe and got them behind the safety of the nearby computer console and I rose up with my assault rifle pointed at them and opened fire—the marauders looked shocked when I continued to come toward them with my gun blazing, they were backing up and stumbling over things in what looked like an effort to get away from me; my rounds hit them multiple times tearing through their bodies until they were all dead on the floor in pools of their own gore. The others came over and clustered around me and Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe examined my body for the wounds that they seemed to know they would find but after several seconds of searching there weren’t any traces of blood on my body anywhere.
“I know that I was hit…I don’t understand…” I stated as I turned to the others and then glanced over at the equipment.
“Let’s get a sample of your blood to where we can examine it with the machines here—I don’t have this type of equipment back home and we haven’t had a lab truck in years.” Desiree stated as she directed me over to the nearby console.
“Keep watch guys—we can’t afford to have more of those assholes sneak up on us in here.” I stated as I turned to Richard, Morgana and Jamie who all nodded.
Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe stood by me as Desiree took a sample of my blood and ran it through the machine’s database of the material that the marauder scientists and bioengineers had been working on and it seemed like it took only a few short minutes before the machine made a beeping sound and Desiree looked at me with an odd look before glancing around at the others of the group around us.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 59
