“C-Chaz…b-baby…take…take care of…Avalon…I will…always be with you…” April said in short, ragged breaths before her body became perfectly still.
I scooped her up into my arms and carried her toward the doorway to the stairs back down and that was when Richard, Morgana and Jaime appeared and they saw the situation that had befallen me—they held the door open and then closed it tightly locking it as I carried April’s body down the stairs to the infirmary; my other women quickly came running to me and they clustered around me weeping as I lay April’s body down on a cot. The others of the group came in and they consoled me and my women as Amy checked April’s body for vital signs, she soon after rose back to her feet and shook her head.
“She’s gone…” Amy stated hanging her head.
“What the hell happened out there?” Hugo asked with disbelief in his voice.
“It was a fucking marauder…he shot her and damn near got me too.” I answered in a voice of pain and anger.
“Where is he now—is he still out there?” Beau asked with a dark look as he gripped his assault rifle tightly.
“He’s still out there, yes—but he won’t be for long because those fucking things will tear his flesh from his bones as they rightfully should.” I answered in a hollow tone as I stared down at the lifeless body of April, my tears dripping down and mingling with her blood.
“Chaz…I’m really sorry that this has happened but I have a concern…” Hugo stated moments later.
“What concern?” I asked glancing up at him.
“Well…April was never officially inoculated with the vaccine that we now know was synthesized from the Redeemer Strain…there’s a chance that she could reanimate…” He answered slowly.
“I don’t think that it will happen…we have a child together as you all know and the Redeemer Strain in me would have already passed on to her…” I answered with a dark look.
“That’s true…but we still need to take the necessary precautions.” Hugo continued as he sat down on a nearby cot.
“Fine…if it has to be done then I will do it myself—I loved her and I know that she wouldn’t want to come back as one of those things.” I answered after several minutes had passed.
I scooped her body up and carried it out of the infirmary toward the fenced-in yard at the northwestern end of the compound and when I got there I sat April’s body on the ground in the center of the area and glanced around at the dead-heads and other mutations that were shambling around on the other side of the chain-linked fence; with little hesitation I grabbed the nearby shovel and began digging until hours had passed and the rain had almost stopped leaving the ground I was digging in soft and mushy. I soon had a six-foot deep hole dug and I climbed out and carried April’s body over and placed it at the bottom of the hole before climbing back out—I grabbed the nearby can of gasoline and held it there in my hands ready as I stared down at the corpse of the woman I had only known for a few seemingly short months but had come to love deeply; that was when her body started to convulse and move around and I knew right then and there that she was reanimating—my coming into her during the times we had made love had not been enough to secure her from this fate. I started dousing her body with the gasoline until the entire hole was soaked through and then I struck my lighter and tossed it into the hole as I quickly turned and walked away—the gasoline ignited and flames shot up out of the hole as April’s body burned; I turned and watched the flames until at least an hour had passed and soon I sat down on the wet ground with my head in my hands.
“I’m sorry baby…this is my fault…wherever you are now I hope that you can forgive me.” I stated in a low wounded tone as I stared ahead at the smoke that was still rising from out of the hole.
That was when the door to the compound behind me opened and several of the others came out and stood next to me—I noticed that Richard, Morgana, Jaime, Beau and Emily stood there as well as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe—who came to my side and wrapped their arms around me helping me stand.
“We couldn’t just let you do all the work…” Richard stated as he grabbed a shovel and started throwing dirt and mud down into the hole.
“Thanks guys…” I answered as I got to my feet and took up my shovel as well.
It took the next several minutes to fill the hole and then Beau handed me a wooden cross that he had made and I drove the bottom of it into the ground at the head of the grave before we all turned and headed back inside; the dead-heads and other mutations outside of the fence were starting to get restless and I knew that we couldn’t take any chances. I returned to our room with Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe at my side and I was thankful that I still had them—we bedded down and it seemed like the night’s gloom passed; the next morning I rose from our bedding and went to the kitchen to get some coffee made and that was when I bumped into Olivia who had been sitting in there alone.
“Olivia…” I stated as our eyes met.
“Chaz…I’m sorry about April…” She answered as she got to her feet and came over to stand before me.
“Thanks…it’s going to take some time for me to get over what happened.” I answered as I halfway turned to the counter where the coffee maker was sitting.
“I know that you’re in pain and that you probably don’t want to hear this right now…but I’ll go ahead and say it.” Olivia continued as she took hold of both of my hands.
“Say what?” I asked raising my right eyebrow inquisitively.
“I’m in love with you…I’ve been thinking about what you said the other day and I don’t want to force you into feeling something for me that you don’t feel—I just thought that you should know how I felt.” Olivia answered as she stared up into my eyes.
“Let’s go talk to Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe…I can’t promise you anything but let’s see what they say.” I answered taking her hand and leading her back to the room where my other women were now waking and dressing.
“Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe—what do you think of the idea of us taking in Olivia and giving her the chance that we gave to April?” I asked as they gathered around the two of us.
“Baby, we told you the other day that the choice was yours and that we would support whatever you decided.” Sheila stated as she kissed the side of my face.
“I’m not trying to take April’s place, I just care deeply about Chaz and I know that all of us can grow to love each other as well.” Olivia answered as she brushed a tear away from the corner of her eye.
“We’ve been with Chaz for a long time now—none of us are really married to him as would have been proper back in the old world…but that world is gone and we chose to devote our hearts to him and to each other…April was more than a girlfriend to Chaz or to us, she was a sister.” Jennifer explained as they took seats around the room around the two of us.
“That’s right, but April is gone now and I know that if there’s a chance that you can help make Chaz happy along with us then you’re welcome to join our family.” Chloe stated smiling.
“Thanks you guys, I’ll do my best to make you and Chaz happy.” Olivia answered as everyone got to their feet and embraced the both of us.
I soon after found Olivia in my arms and her tongue in my mouth again but this time it seemed like it was right and I went with it as Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe gathered around us and kissed on us and each other and soon after we were all nude and I pulled Olivia down into my lap as my rock-hard cock went inside of her wet pussy; our movements got slow, deep and hard and continued until around fifteen minutes later when I gasped out grabbing Olivia’s ass and squeezing it as I came inside of her. She grinned with a satisfied look as she climbed out of my lap letting Jennifer take her turn next—I spent most of the rest of that night making love to Sheila and Chloe as well before all of us fell asleep.
Over the next several weeks Olivia settled into our relationship and our family and
she actually chose to be injected with the vaccine that had been synthesized from the Redeemer Strain which surprised me but I knew that she had come to the decision so that I didn’t have to go through the same heartbreak that I did with losing April should the same thing happen again. At times it seemed like I was living a lottery and that the women I loved all had number tags around their necks—it felt like fate was a cruel mistress who could call one of their numbers at any moment and then they would be taken away from me; I had to shake the thoughts from my mind as I entered the lab where most of the others were. Amy had called us into the lab moments before with an important announcement concerning her progress on the cure to the Redeemer Strain that we all carried save for the few newcomers of Clancy’s group minus Olivia.
“I have finished work on the Redeemer Strain cure that I started several months back—according to my research the immunities to the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin as well as the M.I.M.T.W.B.C.A Strain will remain but the mutagenic properties of the Redeemer Strain will be eliminated forever giving us an immunity to it as well.” Amy explained with an excited expression as everyone exchanged joyful shouts.
“That’s great news—it couldn’t have come at a better time because according to this information that I found on the encrypted computer in the operations room, Darkbourne is gearing up to launch those rockets into our atmosphere very soon…it also looks like he has his lair inside of a large facility atop of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee.” Hugo stated as he came into the laboratory.
“Now is our chance to end this once and for all—to kill Darkbourne and rid the world of the viral legacy that Bowman left behind; Amy—is there any way that the cure you made could be made into an airborne form and loaded into a rocket to be launched into the atmosphere?” I asked turning toward her.
“Yes, but I’ll have to make more of it—there’s only enough right now to inoculate our group.” Amy answered as she strolled over to the machine that the samples were sitting inside of.
“Let’s do that first then—this will be the end of the viral threat to us and once we have dealt with Darkbourne we will launch the cure into the atmosphere of this planet to where those still out there surviving will gain the same immunity that we will have and this curse can slowly end.” I stated folding my arms across my chest.
We all waited as Amy prepared doses of the new cure inside of syringes and then we were given injections one at a time until everyone including the children had been inoculated with the cure—I felt a burning sensation all throughout my body as did many of the others and it soon ended and we all felt normal; just knowing that we had been cured of something that had been a part of us for so long felt strange and I could tell that it would take a while to sink into the minds of many of the others.
“Most of the city that was Chattanooga was vaporized years ago when we trapped the original Entity inside of the nuclear power plant northeast of the city—which means that we’re going to need respirators and radiation suits since we’ll have to get dangerously close to the city in order to get to the roadway leading up the mountain…” I stated as everyone gathered inside of the operations room moments later after we had all been inoculated.
“I forgot about that…so much shit has happened since then…” Jennifer stated as she and my other women clung to me.
“I may know of a way that we can avoid getting close to the city altogether, but we’ll still need gas masks as the last time I was close to the area I am referring to there were large amounts of hazardous waste…” Clancy stated as he stepped forward.
“Really—are you sure?” I asked as I focused my attention on him.
“Yeah, the way I am referring to cuts west and goes straight toward the mountain—there’s an auxiliary road that goes up the mountain from there; we can leave out from here and head due west.” Clancy explained as he grabbed a piece of old paper from nearby and used a pencil to draw a crude map.
“Next thing is how are we going to all get there…the M1134 Stryker that we came here in was badly damaged during the fight with Darkbourne…” Hugo stated in deep thought.
“We’ve kept it quiet about this because we didn’t know when and if we would get the chance to make use of it, but Billy and I have been working on a vehicle that should get all of us to the enemy facility.” Richard stated as he turned and motioned for all of us to follow after him.
We did and soon after stood in the northern garage hanger in front of a massive beast of a vehicle—it looked like it had been a dump truck at one point but Richard and Billy had heavily modified it; the cab of the vehicle was massive and looked like it could hold at least six people including the driver, a powerful .50 caliber M63 anti-aircraft machine gun mount was welded to the top of the cab and the ammo belt looked to be fed from a compartment behind the cab. As I looked over the other parts of the vehicle I seen that it had a solar panel on the top of the rear compartment that looked to power the inside amenities—there was a medium sized food storage that contained things that we had salvaged from the Stryker as well as what we had been able to find on recent supply runs around the area; there was a small bathroom and a shower and over two dozen small bunks around the middle and back of the area where we could sleep. I noticed a large tank on the outside rear right of the vehicle that was full of fresh drinking water and a well-secured awning stretched over the steel walkway that went along the right side of the vehicle above the monstrous wheels—there were also large places for our weapons and other personal effects and I smiled to myself knowing that the boys had once again outdone themselves in the way of making a vehicle for us. Everyone gathered their weapons and gear into the monstrous vehicle and then we all met outside of it later that same evening, Amy had succeeded in making an airborne form of the cure and she had secured it inside of a sealed briefcase and stashed it in the vehicle as well.
“This is it guys—we’re going to end this once and for all and when we are done we’ll do whatever we have to do to survive…one day in the years to come the last of the mutations will be destroyed and we’ll be able to pick back up and hopefully live in a world free from the threat of the undead.” I stated as I stood on the metal walkway of the vehicle overlooking my group.
Everyone cheered and we all gathered up what little we had left and loaded into the massive beast of a vehicle that Billy and Richard had created and I soon found myself at the wheel of the vehicle with Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and Olivia at my side inside of the cab—our kids spread out around them as well as the babies in their arms; Clancy was sitting behind us in the rear seating area helping with directions as the rest of the group settled into the armored living area in the back, Beau was up top on the machine gun and I waited as Hugo briefly got out long enough to open the outer doors and then he got back inside as I drove out into the open streets ad headed west. It seemed weird to be behind the wheel of something as large as what I was now driving but it made me smile gleefully as I smashed into wave after wave of dead-heads and other mutations running them over and smashing their dead, decaying bodies underneath the massive tires; I drove for around an hour before I stopped briefly to let Jennifer drive while I climbed into the back to go over the map with Clancy. As we were going over the directions we started discussing tattoos and other things that were now a part of the dying past and then I learned that Clancy had been a licensed tattoo artist and that he still carried around the equipment to do them; this led me to having him stencil a grim reaper onto my right forearm and shortly after do the tattoo—Scarlet, Darc Aiden and Xavier all watched the process with interest and as soon as it was done I looked over the tattoo that had become an emblem of my life and of my survival. It was coated with a lotion and then wrapped in a light bandage and soon I looked through the windshield at the mountain as we were now starting to climb up the steep roadway, I quickly switched back to driving with Jennifer and I was able to get us up the mountain at a somewhat slow pace; when we finally reached the t
op the engine seemed to do better and Clancy directed me to a highway that would lead us north toward the area that our intel pointed out as the location of Darkbourne’ lair. As the night dragged on I started noticing a lot of dead-heads and other mutations roaming around the sides of the road and the horrible screams that sounded from outside of our vehicle as we passed brought back so many memories of the years past when we had had little choice but to stay on the road; I watched the road and the scenery pass by and soon it was creeping up on morning as we arrived in the clearing of what could only be the outer parameters of the enemy facility—I stopped the vehicle and waited as we were still in the cover of the night’s gloom and I waited as Hugo and several of the others climbed up onto the top of the cab beside of Beau who was still at the mounted machine gun and they looked at the facility ahead of us with night vision and inferred goggles. This lasted several minutes before they knocked on the rear window and waited as Clancy opened it.
“There are marauder sentries on the walls in just about every part of the facility—it looks like we’re going to have to hit them with everything we have in order to get inside of the place.” Hugo stated as his gaze fell on me.
“We packed a little surprise into this baby for this kind of occasion—you see that control panel on your dashboard?” Billy asked as he stuck his head through the rear window of the cab.
“Yeah, I see it.” I answered as I glanced to my right at the console that was in the center of the dashboard.
I hadn’t thought much about it until that point and Billy immediately pointed out that there were buttons that controlled hidden rocket pods on the top and left side of our vehicle—I didn’t waste any time asking questions, I used the control console to target the vital areas of the enemy facility ahead of us and I fired several missiles at them soon after; we watched as the missiles hit the targets causing large explosions that lit up the darkness and I could tell that the enemy had been taken by surprise as they scrambled around trying to locate their attackers. The explosions from the missiles looked to have blown the front gates of the facility wide open and as Hugo handed the inferred goggles to me I could tell that the remaining enemy marauders were fleeing into the facility.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 67
