[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “Let’s clean these up and leave this place.” I stated as I pointed my assault rifle down at the undead below us.

  The others done the same and we all opened fire sending a hail of bullets down into the startled undead massed until soon the entire lot below us was littered with their corpses—Beau and Hugo used a steel ladder that was nearby and soon after we were all on the ground and getting back inside of our monstrous vehicle, after everyone was aboard I backed up and turned around heading out of the ruined gates as Beau pressed the button on the detonator causing the entire facility behind us to explode in a fiery cloud as we disappeared down the roadway away from it.

  “Now what do we do?” Richard asked as he and Morgana sat in the cab behind me and my women.

  “We live and we fight—one day those things will be nothing but a bad memory and maybe then we can get back part of the world that was lost; until then we have a job to do, so let’s not give an inch.” I answered as I glanced up through my side window as the morning sun started to rise in the sky.

  “This has been a long and hard journey…we have lost people we loved and so much of our lives were changed—but it feels like I can finally relax and know that whatever happens from this point we’ll all be fine.” Morgana stated smiling as she threw her arms around Richard and then each of my women before she wrapped her arms around my shoulders from behind kissing me which took me by surprise.

  I smiled as I continued driving knowing that she was right—we had paid a high price for what we had accomplished and I couldn’t help thinking of Noah and his family; wherever they were I hoped that they knew what we had gone through to make what Bowman had done right again. Thoughts of Angie came to my mind as well, how she had been when she had been alive and thoughts of what Bowman had done to her after she had died—I knew that I couldn’t dwell on those thoughts though, because she was safe and her spirit was safe; from this point on things would be very different for each and every one of us and I knew that we would make it through—just as weathered pioneers of the past had made it through the storm to see the dawn of a new day.

  PART TWO:

  [Dead Hour]

  The date is September 12, 2019 and the survivors led by Chaz Watkins have settled into what they were hoping would be an era of peace—despite the still ever growing threat of the undead hordes that were created by Nicolas Bowman’s zombie apocalypse; they soon discover that a new threat looms on the horizon and that their fight to survive in a world ravaged by death and decay is far from being finished…

  The Nightmare ensues…

  I fought to keep the swarm of dead-heads that were breaking through the doorway to our hideout at bay—Jennifer and Sheila grabbed several pieces of wooden boards and brought them over to me where I managed to get them nailed up—there was no doubt in my mind though that we would have to flee yet again; I thought back on the events when we had killed Darkbourne and I thought about how we had launched the rockets filled with the cure to the Redeemer Strain into the atmosphere…it had been two and a half years since that event and nothing had changed—the dead-heads and other mutations had gotten worse and there seemed to be even more of them plaguing what few survivors that were left now.

  “Baby—that’s not going to hold!” Chloe shouted as Jennifer and Sheila grabbed me bringing my mind back to where I was.

  “Get to the others—go!”

  “I’ll be right behind you.” I answered as I swiftly kissed each of my women before turning back to the doorway that we had just barred shut.

  The horde of undead were beating at it and I could see the nails being forced out of the wood—I knew that at any second it would break open and this place would be lost; I grabbed a small tank of propane that we had been using for fuel and I tossed it over at the base of the doorway and I turned running after my women before I swiftly turned and fired a round that hit the tank causing it to explode just as the door broke open. I grabbed the door that I had just passed through closing it shut just as the force behind the explosion hit the other side of the door—I was just about knocked over and that was when Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and Olivia grabbed me and helped me past where the rest of our group was waiting and I soon after took the lead to where we had left the monstrous beast of a vehicle that we had been using ever since the operation to destroy Darkbourne; I glanced back as the entire structure of the building we had been using for shelter went up in a fiery cloud of destruction and I could hear the sounds of the undead and I knew that they weren’t far behind us.

  “We need to get the fuck outta here—hurry guys!” Beau shouted as most of the others of our group climbed into the back of the massive vehicle.

  I climbed up into the driver’s seat with my women and my kids nearby and I started the engine waiting to make sure that the others had all gotten inside and settled before I put the engine into gear and sped through the nearby obstructions knocking them out of the way as I got us onto the nearby roadway—the sky above us was dark and lightning streaked across it, thunder shaking the ground.

  “What are we gonna do now?” Billy asked from the rear cab window as Kayla clung to him shivering.

  “I don’t know…survive is all we can do at this point—we went through hell and back to destroy Darkbourne and everything that he created in Bowman’s shadow and it seems like all of it was pointless; I don’t understand how those things are getting more numerous and more aggressive…” I answered with a troubled brow as I focused on the road ahead.

  “The cure we launched with those rockets was only supposed to give any survivors left out in the world immunity to the original Redeemer Strain—for all we know it could have had an opposite effect on the undead it touched.” Amy stated from nearby where she sat next to Hugo.

  “Man—it just seems like the Winterset fiasco all over again to me…” Kira stated with a distant stare.

  “There’s what looks like an old manor house up ahead—it might be safe enough to stop and rest for the night; whatever happens we need to find a safe place to build up defenses and figure out what we’re going to do about these dead-heads and other mutations that just seem to be getting more and more numerous.” I stated as I glanced at the rest of my group in the rear-view mirror.

  Everyone took notice of what I was talking about and leaned forward as I found an old driveway that was well hidden in the overgrowth of the trees and bushes—once I was able to get our vehicle past the entrance of the driveway it wasn’t too hard to get up the winding hillside to what looked like a reinforced wall and gate that was made of cinderblocks and wooden beams; the rest of the wall consisted of plywood, barbed wire and wooden poles that had been sharpened into pikes. I stopped our massive vehicle putting it into park and everyone climbed down to the ground with their weapons and gear in hand—as I listened for sounds of activity, I heard none, this place was as quiet as the grave.

  “It looks like this place is abandoned…there’s really no way of knowing until we get inside on whether or not it was infiltrated by dead-heads and other mutations.” Billy stated as he and Kayla looked over the rusted chain that was fed through a small hole in the gate in front of us.

  I reached down and examined the chain in my hand and I soon after found a padlock that was even more rusted out than the chain was and I turned and met the eyes of the others as my women wrapped their arms around me while keeping our youngest kids close.

  “Looks like the only way to get past this is to shoot the lock off…” Hugo stated from off to the side.

  “Wait a minute—even better.” Beau stated as he turned and walked over to the side of our vehicle grabbing something that was just out of our view.

  He shortly after brought forth a pickaxe that had been stashed on the side of the vehicle and he handed it to me—knowing what he had in mind I stuck the point of the tool into the gap of the padlock and I braced it against the gate to gain leverage; after a few seconds the padlock m
ade a snapping sound before falling off of the chain with a slight clatter.

  Richard and Billy pushed the gate open and we all got our first look at the exterior of the manor house that we had only seen through the trees along the road—it was in moderate to poor condition in some places but those spots had been reinforced with boards and what looked like chain linked fencing; there was no doubt in my mind at this point that this place had been a fortified hideout for possibly a large group of survivors. I noticed that several abandoned and moderately wrecked cars and SUVs were back toward the rear yard of the place and there were tire tracks all over the place suggesting that there had been more.

  “We should scout the place out and see if there is anyone here—that wall looks like it stretches all the way around the property so I kind of doubt that we’ll have to worry about anything getting in here…we should be ready to defend ourselves though.” I stated as everyone grouped around me in a large circle.

  The others nodded and split into groups of two to three people and they headed into the building while a few of the others brought our vehicle inside of the wall and sealed the gate shut—I searched the outer parameter with my women close and my Dad and Mom stayed by the vehicle with our kids; there were a couple more smaller buildings toward the rear of the property that looked like they had been used as sleeping quarters, they were empty as well and there were only slight traces that anyone had been there. As we searched, we found a medium sized chicken coop that surprisingly still had a good number of chickens inside of it which was a surprise in itself.

  “We’ll make use of these chickens if we don’t end up finding anyone or staying here—we can use those smaller cages and take them with us…it’d help our food stock to have fresh eggs and of course the meat of those we slaughter.” I stated in deep thought.

  That was when we heard shouting coming from inside of the manor house—fearing the worst I led the way in a sprint into the house to the source of the noise and we found that Beau and Amy were fighting off a couple of dead-heads with their melee weapons as to not attract unwanted attention from any others that might be around the area; Beau decapitated the last one by lopping the top part of its head off and we watched as the black coagulated blood spurted and sprayed all over the area.

  “Sorry to scare you guys—those fuckers just appeared from what I’m guessing was the kitchen…” Beau stated with a chuckle as he used the edge of a nearby broken-down loveseat to wipe the blood off of his machete.

  “It’s fine, I’m just glad to nobody was seriously hurt or bitten…not so sure that the immunities we once had with the Redeemer Strain are still active.” I answered in deep thought.

  “Doubtful—that was about the only good thing that came from us making the cure…I’m not so sure that anyone left alive on this planet was given immunities to anything.” Amy stated folding her arms across her chest.

  “We just have to be careful…what have you guys found?” Jennifer asked as several of the other group members came into the house joining us.

  “Not much—the outside parameter is secure and free from those dead sons of bitches though.” Richard answered as Morgana leaned against him.

  “This place was definitely a sanctuary for survivors—there are all kinds of traces around that people were here…by the looks of it not that long ago.” Hugo stated as he leaned against the nearby wall.

  “I’ll buy that…but where the hell did they all go?” Garry answered with a skeptical look.

  “Guys—we might have just found the answer to that, come with us.” Kayla stated from off to the right as she came halfway down the nearby stairs getting our attention.

  We followed her upstairs into a room where Billy was fiddling with a ham radio and as we got close he played a message that had obviously been recorded as a small tape recorder could be seen on the desk in front of him—as I listened I could tell that the recording was some kind of beacon but it sounded like it was really far away; it told of a last bastion of humanity where the last remnants of survivors were gathering in an attempt to survive against the hordes of dead-heads and other abominations that had been on the loose since the fall of 2000. This place was supposedly located to the distant northwestern part of the North American continent and by the sound of the description my mind immediately went to Canada.

  “Echo Bay…where the hell is that?” Kira asked with a puzzled look after the recording had ended.

  “It’s a small tourist trap located on the eastern shores of Canada’s largest lake—Great Bear Lake.” Beau answered as he took out a map of North America that also had various road maps bunched with it.

  “Damn…that’s way up there in the Northwest Territories near the Arctic Circle…if that’s where the survivors of this shit are gathering then maybe we should think about heading that way too…” Sheila stated with a look of awe as she glanced at the map Beau was holding.

  “That’s one hell of a trip—I know that we’ve made that kind of trek before all across western and eastern Europe as well as across this country but it’s gonna be long and dangerous…we need to get everyone’s thoughts on this because once we get going there might not be any way to stop or change our minds until we get there.” I answered as I glanced around at the entire group.

  “Do you think that that is where the people who were here went?” Jake asked curiously.

  “It’s very likely…first we’ll have to decide if we’re going to continue to use that old dump truck that we’ve been using since destroying Darkbourne or if we’re going to try and find better vehicles—then there’s the matter of weapons, ammo and food stock.” I answered in deep thought as I started pacing back and forth.

  “The dump truck is good defense against those sons of bitches…but because of it using diesel fuel it’s not that good of a choice to use to make that kind of a trip.” Beau stated in deep thought.

  “He’s right—regular gas is hard enough to find these days, diesel is even harder to come by…we should probably try to find something smaller, something that uses regular fuel because it’s not as difficult to find.” Billy answered glancing around at everyone.

  “Okay—well, we’ll have to use it until we find whatever we’re gonna find…in the meantime, let’s gather whatever might be left here and then we’ll hunker down until the morning tomorrow—there’s not much light left.” I stated as I brought my women into my arms.

  I looked up as a slight breeze started blowing through the tree limbs above us and that was when I heard Billy and Kayla comment about something that they smelled on the wind—that was when I smelled what they were talking about, it smelled like rotting bodies and it was bad enough to make the others around us all cover their faces as we all ducked into the empty house.

  “Fuck…what is that horrid smell?” Beau asked as he stood by the nearby window working to close it.

  “I don’t know but we didn’t smell it before—not until a minute ago…I have a bad feeling about this…” I answered in a worried tone as I too glanced out the nearby window toward the edge of the woods to the west where the wall was.

  “That tree over there might give a better view of the woods in that direction—let me climb up there and I’ll see if I can’t see what’s making that stench…” Beau stated as he strolled over to a nearby oak tree and started adjusting his gear.

  Moments later he started climbing up the tree, one limb at a time—when he was finally at a reasonable height, he used his binoculars to glance in the direction that the stench was permeating from.

  “Can you see anything?” I called up as everyone was now gathering near the base of the tree.

  “Hang on…I’m seeing movement of some kind but with all of the foliage I can’t make out what it is…” Beau answered as he shifted his stance in the branches to where he was more secure.

  “Holy shit…we can’t stay here!” He shouted seconds later drawing everyone
’s attention to the sounds that were now accompanying the smell.

  Hundreds—hell—maybe thousands of dead-heads and other mutations were now bearing down on the western walls of the abandoned outpost and there were no doubts in my mind that they would break through that flimsy wall in no time.

  “Everyone—back in the truck, we’ll just have to pick up on our plans once we’re away from this shit.” I called as everyone headed for the large dump truck that we had come in.

  Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and Olivia climbed into the cab making sure that our children were safe and secure while the others done the same—once everyone was aboard I started the engine and put the truck into reverse; that was when the western wall of the abandoned outpost splintered and the surge of dead-heads and other mutations poured in. I could see dozens of jumper zombies in the front ranks and they immediately took notice of us leaping up onto the front of the cab as I was desperately trying to back up out of the area—I heard the back of the truck smash through the makeshift gate and I could hear the others in the back shooting as the main surge of the dead-heads were now swarming around the massive tires and sides of our vehicle; I only slightly noticed Billy climb up onto the mounted weapon on the top of the cab and he switched the firing type and then searing flames shot down into the mass of undead burning them. The flames spread around the area catching trees and bushes ablaze and it seemed to be slowing the swarm down enough to where we could escape—I backed out onto the road that stretched past where we had been and I switched gears speeding forward away from the doomed outpost as the mass of dead-heads and other mutations soon after emerged from the now burning woods and took chase after us; Billy switched the mode on the mounted gun and opened fire on the jumper zombies which were now almost to him—the powerful bullets tore into their heads knocking them off of the front of the truck onto the road where I smashed them underneath the front tires only feeling a slight bump.