“This is it—let’s go!” I shouted as I got back into the driver’s seat of our vehicle and waited as everyone else climbed up the side ladder and loaded into the back.
Once everyone was ready I put the monstrous vehicle into gear and we rolled forward smashing through what was left of the gates and I could hear Beau firing on the big gun above us as I brought our vehicle to a stop near the main entrance that the enemy had fled through. I climbed out of the cab with my women and Clancy as the rest of the group gathered around us—I could tell that the doors before us were heavy blast doors and that the explosions from the missiles had done little to no damage to them at all.
“How the hell are we going to get through this door?” Regan asked as she stared ahead at them with a look of annoyance.
“I might be able to short circuit the controls…give me minute.” Yuri stated as he stepped forward and started fiddling with the nearby control box.
That was when a loud crash sounded from behind us and we whirled around to see a hideous creature approaching our position from the dark roadway where we had come from—there was something strikingly familiar about this creature and at first I was confused and then it hit me; this was the same creature that we had seen on the video file that we had found back at the abandoned marauder compound in Fort Oglethorpe.
“Shit—that’s that Project Nephilim creature those assholes were developing on that video!” Kira shouted as she pointed her weapons at it as it steadily approached us.
“It fucking followed us…but how…I don’t understand how it could have found us here, let alone how it escaped the sublevels…” Hugo answered with a dark look.
“No time to ask questions on how it got here—let’s smoke its ass!” I shouted as I stepped forward and opened fire with my M16.
Beau climbed back up and turned the mounted machine gun on the top of the cab around to where it was aimed at the oncoming creature and he opened fire as well, the powerful bullets tore into the creatures’ body and sent black blood splattering in all directions and as each round struck the creatures’ body, it seemed to knock it back but the thing wasn’t stopping nor showing signs of weakening; that was when it roared a horrible sound that echoed down the side of the mountain and into the valley below—I grabbed my women and kids and we quickly dove behind our vehicle as the others around us done the same. The creature reared back and spread its wing-like limbs out to both sides and then it sprayed out some sort of acidic sludge toward us that splattered against the back and left side of our vehicle causing putrid smoke to rise from the areas where the sludge was sizzling on the armored metal plates—luckily none of the others were hit by the stuff but I knew that we wouldn’t last against that kind of attack; we had to figure out what this thing’s weakness was and fast. Chloe tossed me the same M32 grenade launcher that I had used to save her when we had first met and I nodded at her and my other women as well as the others around us and I quickly crept around the right side of our vehicle and I spotted the creature as it was steadily heading toward the other side of the vehicle—I glanced up at Beau and he seen my look and nodded; seconds later he opened fire on the creature again drawing its attention to him again, I watched at it reared back with its limbs spread out to the sides like it had when it had first sent the acidic sludge at us and I saw my window of opportunity as it opened its mouth preparing to spit the shit at Beau. I carefully aimed my grenade launcher at the creatures’ mouth and fired—the grenade round flew into its mouth and exploded sending it flying backward into the far wall near the destroyed gates and from the way it tore about I could tell that it was badly injured; I fired several more rounds that hit its body and exploded creating a large explosion that caused the concrete wall in that area to crumble and topple down on top of what was left of the creature as the fires consumed it entirely. Satisfied that it was dead, I turned back to the rest of my group and we cheered before returning to the blast doors where Yuri once again started working to short circuit the controls; within the next several moments he had the blast doors open and a long moderately illuminated corridor greeted us. I pointed my assault rifle ahead of me and led the way inside of the entrance and that was when there was a crashing sound from behind us again, we all turned around again and to my disbelief I seen that the Nephilim bio-weapon had somehow smashed up out of the ruins and debris that had fallen on it and it was now perched on the top of what was left of the wall behind it.
“How the hell is that damned thing still alive?!” Billy bellowed in a tone of disbelief.
“Get back!” I shouted as Hugo tossed me an RPG launcher.
I aimed the weapon at the creature as everyone got clear from the back blast of the weapon as I fired—the rocket soared at the creature and hit it in the torso where I could now see a large hole that the grenade rounds had made; its heart was visible and it convulsed as the rocket hit it and exploded causing the creatures’ entire body to splatter into hundreds of pieces that went in all directions as what was left fell to the ground and oozed the foul, black blood.
“Now maybe the fucking thing is dead…” I stated as I handed the RPG back to Hugo who put it back inside of the cache he and the other Covenant One members were carrying.
That was when we saw that the roadway outside of the ruined gates was filling with dead-heads and other mutations and they were coming straight for us.
“Everyone inside—now!” I shouted as my women gathered our kids and hustled them into the corridor as everyone else done the same.
Once we were all inside of the facility Yuri hit the controls on the inside wall and the blast doors closed shut, we could all hear the horrible screams of the undead as they beat on the outside of the door—I knew right then and there that we wouldn’t be going back that way.
“Let’s find Darkbourne and finish this shit…” I stated as I turned and glanced down the corridor ahead of us.
I could hear shouting and running booted feet and within seconds a large group of marauders appeared at the end of the corridor ahead of us and they pointed their weapons at us—luckily we were prepared and we opened fire on them killing them before they had much of a chance to fire on us; I led the way over their corpses and into the next area which appeared to be some sort of large central control room.
“I wonder how many of them are in here…” Jennifer stated as she held her AK-74 assault rifle in her arms tightly.
“From the looks of this map there’s a couple Viral Research Laboratories nearby—I think that it would be a good idea if we destroy those and any opposition that we might find there.” Amy stated as she found a nearby map of the layout of the facility we were now in.
“That sounds like a good idea…Darkbourne is more than likely hiding like the coward that he is.” Sheila stated as she and my other women clung to me.
“Half of us will stay here in this central chamber and see if we can’t figure out where he is as well as make sure that more of those damned marauder assholes don’t ambush us from behind.” I stated as I strolled over to stand before a computer console that was nearby.
Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and Olivia stayed at my side with our kids as Remy, Mace and Ember stood nearby with their sniper rifles as well while the others headed through the western door; we watched and waited and as more time passed we heard gunfire and shouts from the others and before too much longer they returned and told us that they had left explosives inside of both Viral Research Laboratories and that they had only found a few marauder guards that they had killed. Beau, Emily and a few of the others returned from the front Security Room and reported that the enemy had been eliminated from that area as well.
“This door to the east leads to an unmarked large room—there’s a good chance that Darkbourne is there.” I stated as I pointed to the map that Amy had found several minutes earlier.
“I think that you’re right about that—all of the other chambers that this map shows we h
ave already checked and he wasn’t there; we need to find him and put a stop to this diabolical plan of his that that marauder we interrogated awhile back told us of.” Hugo answered nodding.
I picked up my weapons and led the way through the eastern door with my women, family and friends all behind me—we passed over a large pipeline that ran through a large depression in the floor and soon we arrived at the end of the corridor before a massive door that we opened and there before our eyes was a massive monstrosity of a creature that bore the same look and features as Darkbourne had the last time we had encountered him; it looked like he had further mutated and now it was almost impossible to tell that he had once had a humanoid body structure.
“I see that you fools have finally come…too bad that you’ve come for nothing—you will not thwart my plans to launch my Redeemer Strain into this planet’s atmosphere…I will rule this world whether you fuckers like it or not!” The creature shouted in a loud growling, guttural voice.
I looked upon the thing that Darkbourne had become and I thought to myself remembering the man that Nicolas Bowman had been before we had killed him and of course before we had learned that his clone had become Darkbourne and I shook my head—hatred had made him into a monster long before the viral strains he had created had and I felt like we had finally encountered the monster that had lurked behind the man all along; its limbs had grown twice the size that they had been before and long clawed fingers stretched out from them. Darkbourne’ body had almost completely melded in on itself and he no longer had what would be considered a head or a face—it was now nothing more than a large mass with red glowing membranes underneath a grotesque layer of hardened flesh; before we could hardly prepare he attacked us and we were forced to fall back out of the door after only a few short moments of unloading our weapons on him. He had flung several large obstructions at us that had narrowly missed hitting us and the entrance into his chamber was now blocked off completely.
“How the fucking hell are we going to kill that asshole?” Garry shouted panting for air as he leaned against the nearby wall of the corridor.
“I don’t know…there has to be some sort of roof access or something…let me see that map that we found again.” I answered as I turned to Amy who spread the map out before us on the floor.
I glanced at it and then back at the debris of the destroyed door as we could hear Darkbourne roaring and thrashing around on the other side of it.
“There’s a maintenance access shaft that goes to the central control computer inside of his chamber—it’s suspended on the ceiling and we might be able to get inside of it without him knowing it…there should be some kind of sterilization process that will destroy him once and for all.” Beau stated as he studied the map closely.
“Good, that sounds like the only choice we have at this point—let’s go.” I answered as I checked the ammo clip in my assault rifle.
That was when more gunfire sounded and we were forced to duck out of the way as bullets tore around the corridor, I glanced back toward the front of the corridor where we had come through and I saw several figures that looked like marauder elite commandos and I remembered the times in the recent past when we had encountered these assholes and how difficult they had been to kill; I grabbed the M32 grenade launcher again and pointed it at them.
“Chaz—look!” Beau shouted getting my attention momentarily at something he was pointing to.
I glanced up and seen a ladder going up to a service shaft on the ceiling and I smiling knowing that we had found the way up to where we needed to be in order to get to the central computer control chamber above Darkbourne’ chamber—I fired several grenade rounds at the approaching enemies and we ducked as the explosions blew them to pieces as well as caused the area of the structure near the doorway to collapse blocking it off entirely.
“We’re now trapped in here—I hope you guys have a plan…” Jake stated as he and the others with Clancy’s group clustered around us.
“Up the ladder—this should lead to the maintenance access that I was talking about.” Beau stated as he took the lead.
We all followed him up the ladder and within seconds we were all standing in a somewhat narrow corridor that looked to lead up and we followed it until we arrived at a steel hatch that was labeled in red letters, it read ‘Central Computer Access’.
“Lower me down…I’ll see what I can do once I’m inside of the suspended chamber.” Beau whispered.
Emily embraced him kissing him briefly as I attached a strong cable to his backpack and then we waited as Richard, Marco, Hugo and a few others carefully and quietly opened the hatch—as soon as it was open we started lowering Beau down to the suspended platform that was no more than ten or fifteen feet below us, I could see Darkbourne far below and it looked like he was working to tear the obstruction away from the destroyed entrance to his chambers and unaware of our presence. We managed to get Beau to the suspended platform and we watched as he unhooked the cable from his backpack and carefully opened the door and entered the Central Computer Control Room—it had been no more than a second at best since he had entered when an alarm suddenly sounded which caused Darkbourne to look up at us from far below and I let out a gasp knowing that we had been discovered; he started thrashing around the chamber far below trying to find a way up to the suspended platform and I knew that it was only a matter of time before he found a way up to us. Down below Beau frantically searched around looking at the various controls before him and that was when a piece of debris from below hit the outside of the thick plate glass windows causing the entire structure of the suspended platform to shake slightly.
“Shit…damned alarm!” Beau shouted as he continued his search.
He soon after found a set of controls that were labeled ‘Biohazard Contamination Sterilization’ and he pressed keys on the nearby keyboard initiating the sequence just as Darkbourne leapt up about half of the way to where the suspended platform was but then dropped back down.
“Biohazard Contamination detected—central control room will be sterilized in ten…nine…” A synthetic voice stated over the intercom of the facility.
Beau glanced at another set of controls that showed the vital signs of Darkbourne and that was when he realized that the rocket launching process was connected to his life force—they were set to launch into the Earth’s atmosphere automatically should he cease to live.
“Clever motherfucker…but try this on for size!” Beau stated as he hit several keys causing the computer system to force the rockets down into their underground pods and placing restraints on them to where they couldn’t launch.
He then glanced at the computer and noticed that the mixing process of the Redeemer Strain was fluctuating rapidly as though it was unstable and he read the option on the screen that read ‘Liquid Viral De-Contamination Process’ and he hit the key for that; his attention was then focused on large blast doors that immediately closed over the area below the suspended platform where he was sealing off the area where Darkbourne was below and he listened as the computer finished with the countdown and the Biohazard Contamination Sterilization process started. I could hear Darkbourne wailing in agony as the sterilization process destroyed him and we all watched and waited until the synthetic voice sounded once again saying that the process had been completed successfully—the blast doors opened and we all looked down into the chamber below that was littered with scorch marks as well as a large pile of ashes that had once been Darkbourne; our goal had finally been achieved, the monster that Nicolas Bowman had left in his wake was destroyed and everyone cheered as Beau opened the door to the suspended platform and looked up at us with an excited expression on his face.
I glanced at the bottom of the hatch that we stood before and noticed that there was a sturdy ladder that could be lowered down and I did so with the help of Richard and Marco before I descended down with my women and a few of the others including Amy; we
arrived at the suspended platform and we went inside with Beau and he explained what he had done during those crucial few seconds just before the sterilization process had started.
“Viral supply Tanks A, B, C and Storage have been nullified—all traces of biohazard contamination have been eliminated.” The synthetic computer voice stated over the console.
I walked to the main computer screen and noticed that it was a control console for a handful of other launch facilities that were scattered around the world and I noticed that there was a master command switch with a self-destruct button—I pressed it and we watched as surveillance footage from around the world came up on the screen of each of the other facilities as they exploded in fiery clouds of destruction and that was when I knew that it was truly over; the nightmare that Bowman had created so long ago would slowly come to an end, we wouldn’t have to worry about Darkbourne anymore either for he was just as dead as Bowman was now. Over the next several hours we worked to figure out a way to load the cure to the Redeemer Strain that Amy had created into the supply tanks and after some minor issues we were able to accomplish that—we waited as the mixture was compressed and fed into the chamber of a new set of rockets that we prepared in the launch bay; once the airborne form of the cure was ready to launch, we all watched as the rockets were launched into the sky. I wrapped my arms around Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and Olivia knowing that this would be the dawn of a new era—sure there would still be dead-heads and other mutations to kill and defend ourselves from but over time they too would disappear and this made me smile; Beau, Hugo and several others found a large stash of cement bags in a storage room and they mixed the cement with water inside of several wheel barrels and then we helped them dump the cement down into the launch tubs that still held the rockets with the airborne form of the Redeemer Strain and once they were completely covered with cement, I hit the controls and the blast doors sealed over the spot where they were and we all breathed sighs of relief. Soon after we left explosives around the facility that could be triggered with a detonator and we found a stairwell that led to the roof of the place and we strolled to the edge of the roof looking down on our vehicle and the hordes of dead-heads and other mutations that surrounded the front of the facility.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 68
