[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  ‘Yeah—we know, this whole area is covered with those dead fucks…we’re trying to keep the noise down but I doubt that those things will just leave…” Hugo answered in a whisper.

  “We’ve seen a few of those big bioweapons before—we nicknamed them “Twins” because they look like they were mutated from out of two different creatures.” Noah added as he and Christina joined us.

  “We might be able to take some of them out if a few of us with high-powered rifles go up on the roof…” I stated as my daughters came to my mind.

  “Sounds like a good idea—we might also want to break out the AT4 rocket launchers…there are a lot of those things out there.” Beau answered with a worried expression.

  I nodded and walked over to where Remy, Mace and Ember were and I explained the situation to them and then they eagerly grabbed their Dragunov Sniper Rifles and headed for the stairs to the roof—I grabbed one of the rocket launchers and loaded it; my women and Billy as well as Richard grabbed their weapons and the ammo cache for the rocket ammo and they followed. Once we were on the roof we stayed low hunkering down as we practically crawled through the thick snow and ice over to the edge of the roof to where we could clearly see the hordes of dead-headed and other mutations as well as the new bioweapons that were stalking around the area below—I carefully aimed my rocket launcher at one of the new bioweapons that was a ways off and I fired the rocket, it soared down through the air and hit the creature exploding; this created a huge cloud of fire, smoke and debris as several abandoned vehicles nearby went up in the explosion.

  “That created a distraction looks like…” Richard stated as he gazed at the area through a pair of binoculars.

  Many of the dead-heads below were screaming their horrible way and actually heading toward the burning remains of the bioweapon that I had destroyed with the rocket round but that was when a jumper zombie suddenly spotted us and leapt up through the air and landed almost on top of us—Mace fired a shot that blew the jumper’s head off sending its body off the ledge of the roof down to the street below.

  “Shit—we’ve got incoming!” Billy shouted as he propped his squad automatic weapon up onto the ledge of the roof and opened fire on the masses below.

  Dozens fell to the hail of bullets but there were so many of them and it seemed like more were coming out of the woods and fields beyond the edge of town—I grabbed several of the grenades from the surplus store we had went to over a month before and I pulled the pins from a cluster of them before tossing them down into the mass of dead-heads and other mutations; seconds later the grenades exploded shaking the building around us and it became apparent that the explosion had destroyed many of the windows on a few of the lower levels. I could hear the others below down on the first floor as well as some on the second floor shooting and I knew that the wave of infected had hit the outside of the barricades—I reloaded my rocket launcher and aimed again at the oncoming bioweapons that were slow but getting closer, I fired several more rockets that exploded and destroyed them as well as a large area around them but I knew that we were about to be overrun.

  “Fall back to the first floor—we’ve got a breech!” Marco shouted waving his arms wildly as the door behind us to the stairwell suddenly flew open.

  “Come on everyone—we have to keep those fuckers from getting inside this hotel!” I shouted as I got to my feet and led the way following after Marco.

  My women and daughters followed after me closely and Billy and Richard followed last as they carried the wooden crate with the rocket ammo—it took us several long minutes to get back down to the first floor and once we did we seen that the situation was serious as one of the barricades on the side that the horde had been outside of had been broken; fire and smoke filled the air and part of the area where the destroyed barricade had been was burning out of control, shrapnel damage was all over the area and it looked like one of the others had used a grenade to try and stop the dead-heads from getting through.

  “Get down!” I shouted as I reloaded my rocket launcher and aimed it at the dead-heads that I could see through the destroyed barricade and I fired.

  The rocket flew through the barricade and hit the masses exploding and that created a large wall of fire as it looked like several abandoned vehicles had been destroyed as well—for the moment the wall of fire was keeping the horde at bay.

  “We’ve got structural damage all up and down that side of this building—even if we fend off these dead-fucks the destroyed windows aren’t going to keep the weather out…” Hugo reported as he wiped the sweat and dirt from his face.

  “Fall back to the parking structure below—we’ll disable the elevator and hole up down there until we’re able to leave this place…” I commanded as I turned to the entire group as they gathered around me.

  It took the next few minutes for the others to gather their things that they had brought up as well as our food supplies and then we all headed down to the parking structure below where our vehicles were and then Hugo disabled the elevator making it to where it wouldn’t work and we settled down around the area of our vehicles knowing that we had lost what we had been hoping we would be able to use to ride out the storm in just a short amount of time.

  “Now I kind of understand why these others are gathering up near Great Bear Lake at Echo Bay…those things are just so many…ammo is getting scarce as well; I wouldn’t be surprised if the time comes in the near future when we’ll have to be relying on hand-to-hand and melee combat just to survive…the situation with weapons and combat may even revert back to way things were in the middle ages.” I stated in deep thought.

  “We might have no other choice but to just continue on our way—put chains on all of the tires and just go with it; the way things have turned out in just a very short amount of time it doesn’t seem like we’re going to be able to hold out until the snow and ice melts off the roads…” Regan stated as she started pacing around the area.

  “I agree with her—we may have disabled the elevator and shut the shutters to this area but if those things want to get in here bad enough, they will find a way…I’ve seen it happen before.” Beau stated with a dark look.

  “Okay—all in favor of blowing this popsicle stand and continue on our planned route, raise your hands.” I stated as I glanced around at the entire group.

  Most of the others raised their hands and after I counted the hands of those who opposed the idea it was clear of what our next move would be.

  “Let’s get started on putting the chains on the tires, we’ll plan on heading out at first light in the morning.” I stated as I turned to my women bringing them into my arms.

  Over the next several hours we worked on attaching chains to the tires of the vehicles that we hadn’t already and finally after nearly a whole night’s work it was done—I was laying in the back of our Bronco with Jennifer and Sheila while my other women slept nearby when I overheard Beau and Hugo talking, it sounded like there was a food shortage and they were concerned about it; I carefully got up and climbed out of the back of the Bronco heading over to where they were curious as to what the issue was.

  “Sorry to disturb you—you no doubt heard what we were talking about.” Hugo stated as I approached.

  “Yeah—something about there being a food shortage?” I answered as I leaned against the Zetros where they were.

  “Our supplies have been dwindling at an extra alarming rate ever since we’ve been snowbound—we’re going to have to go out and find something or else we’re not going to make it through Canada…” Beau stated as he walked over and showed me the area of the Zetros where they had food stored.

  I could tell that they weren’t joking—the food stocks had decreased a good amount since the last time I had looked and I knew that it was because of us being snowbound and stuck in this location for as long as we had been.

  “I’ll take the Bronco out at first light wit
h a few others and see if I can’t locate a food storage building in the area—maybe something those damned marauders or someone else left behind.” I stated folding my arms across my chest.

  “That’s going to be extremely dangerous with all of those dead-heads and others up above wandering around…” Hugo answered with a worried tone.

  “We don’t have a choice—we need to have enough food on hand, we’d need that even if we weren’t trying to make a road trip up north.” I answered as I turned to glance over toward the Bronco as I heard Jennifer’s voice calling out to me.

  “Do what you need to do, but be careful.” Beau stated as I nodded and left them heading back over to meet Jennifer.

  “What’s going on, baby?” Jennifer asked as I greeted her with a warm kiss.

  “I’m going to have to make a supply run at first light to try and locate more food—we’re seriously running low and we won’t have enough to make it on this trip if I don’t.” I answered taking her into my arms.

  “I’ll go along with you and whoever else you take—I can use our big rig to possibly attach a semi-trailer to it and haul whatever we find back here.” Noah stated as he and Christina approached.

  “I’ll take Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and Olivia—people to help load whatever we find as well as gunners for the back of our Bronco.” I answered after a few moments of silence.

  We soon after started getting our gear and weapons ready as I felt like it was pointless to try and sleep anymore—by my watch daybreak was in less than an hour and I wanted to just get it over with so we could get back here and hopefully get underway and head back toward the planned route north; I started the engine of our Bronco and waited with the driver’s side door open as Rachel, Roxanne and Shae came over to me and wrapped their arms around me. They were worried and I understood why, one moment we had been safe and secure in the hotel above, the next we were fleeing into the sublevels because it had been breached—I took each of them into my arms hugging and kissing them trying to reassure them that everything would be okay; Remy, Mace and Ember came over and seen us as well as my younger kids and I hugged each of them knowing that if something were to happen that they’d have to carry on without us.

  “Let’s get going—the sooner we find some food and get it back here the sooner we can leave this icebox.” I stated as I nodded to Noah and Christina as they climbed into the cab of their big Mack truck.

  Noah drove to the steel shutters that were still closed and he quickly climbed out and hit a control switch on the wall, which caused the shutters to start rising—he quickly climbed back inside of his rig and gunned the motor as soon as it was fully open; just as I had figured, a small mass of dead-heads were out there waiting and they charged at Noah as soon as he had exited the underground parking structure. The massive steel spikes on the front of his rig impaled the dead-heads and other mutations that got in the way and I quickly followed him out of the exit and stopped to make sure that the others inside got the shutters closed, which they did in time to keep the hordes out; once we were out in the open I followed after Noah and Christina as they continued to both impale dead-heads and completely run them over and it wasn’t long before we made it to the far end of town and noticed an old restaurant supply warehouse and I directed Noah to it over the CB.

  “That’s probably the closest we’re going to find in the way of finding anything that we can remotely use—there should also be trailers around that we can haul what we find in.” I stated over the CB as I pulled off the road into the rear lot of the building.

  “Good idea—hopefully there’s not anything around that we can’t take down ourselves…I feel pretty exposed out here.” Noah answered on the other end.

  “You’re not kidding, let’s get this shit done and get back.” I answered as I grabbed my weapons and gear getting out of the Bronco followed by my women.

  I ran to the side of the door to the building and turned the knob, it opened with some effort and we were greeted by a dank, musty smell that hit us in the face like a ton of bricks.

  “Damn…I wonder if there’s going to even be anything in there worth our time and trouble with that smell being this bad…” Sheila stated covering her nose with her hand.

  “All we can do is hope…” I answered as I flicked on my flashlight leading the way inside of the corridor that spread out from the door ahead of us.

  We soon found a series of what was no doubt freezers, but it looked like there hadn’t been power of any kind to this place for years—I checked the freezers and found that there were huge chunks of meat inside of them, I opened one of them and quickly turned away as a foul, rancid smell permeated from the meat.

  “That’s a no-go for sure…ugh…” I stated as I bent over off to the side trying not to puke.

  “The other freezers are full of what looked like freezer-burned garbage…” Jennifer reported as we all regrouped in the center of the room.

  “There’s got to be something left in here…let’s head deeper in.” I stated as I once again took the lead.

  We soon after found several rooms that were filled with sealed boxes of cereal, oatmeal and other dry goods—several round drums were there as well and once we got them opened, we found powdered milk and sugar; I knew that this stuff would tide us over if it had to and I quickly grabbed a freight cart and started loading the items onto it. It took us the next several minutes to gather what we had found and then I found what looked like it had been an office, I didn’t find anything inside of the room but as I was leaving I knocked over a cardboard box that was full of seed packets and I glanced at my women smiling—these could be planted once we were able to find a safe place and it would help solve the food issue.

  “I don’t think that we’re going to find anything else in here—let’s get this stuff loaded up and split before those dead sons of bitches sniff us out.” I stated leading the way back toward the entrance as the others followed with the freight cart.

  The outside parking lot of the building was still free and clear of any dead-heads and we worked together to load what we had found into the back of the Bronco as well as into a small, somewhat short semi-trailer that Noah had attached to the back of his rig; I had hoped to find more than what we had but our search had come up short—once it was all loaded up, we got back into our vehicles and I led the way out onto the road. That was when a rumbling sound suddenly got my attention and then right before our eyes a massive figure smashed out of the side of a nearby brick building and hit the side of our Bronco in such a way that it sent us tipping over spinning at least twice through the air before we crashed into a building on the opposite side of the road; I struggled with my seat belt and checked on Jennifer and Sheila who were both okay except for some minor cuts and bruises—that was when I heard Chloe cry out and I glanced back seeing that Olivia was covered in blood; there was a piece of metal that had broken off of the inside of our Bronco and lodged in her side, it also appeared as though she probably had several broken ribs.

  “We’ve got to get out of here—it’s a fucking Dozer!” Jennifer shouted as she and Sheila worked to help me pick up Olivia from where she was.

  That was when Noah gunned the engine of his rig and plowed into the side of the Dozer impaling it on the steel spikes—this looked like it had severely weakened the large bioweapon and he slammed on the brakes sending the body of the Dozer off the spikes ahead several hundred feet where it smashed into the front of an old café; Noah and Christina got out of their truck and ran to the back of our Bronco pulling it open as I met them with Olivia in my arms.

  “How bad is she?” Christina asked in a worried tone.

  “She’s bleeding bad—we’ve got to get this metal out of her side and stop the bleeding, it looks like she has several broken ribs as well…” I answered in a fear-stricken tone.

  “Baby—look!” Chloe suddenly shouted pulling on my right arm.

 
I turned and seen what she was pointing at and seen that a massive military-style vehicle was parked up the street; it was painted a blood-red color and looked kind of out of place—I glanced back at our overturned Bronco that was starting to smoke and catch fire and I knew that we wouldn’t be using it anymore.

  “Go—get that thing started and loaded up, I’ll take care of this metal…” Christina shouted as she fetched a first aid kit from inside of their rig.

  I nodded knowing that we had a small window of time if we hoped to get out of this place alive—I told my women to wait with Noah and Christina as I turned and ran towards the massive vehicle; it took me a few minutes to reach the behemoth of a vehicle and I climbed up the side of the driver’s side and opened the door—the inside was relatively clean and undisturbed and the keys were surprisingly in the ignition. I wasted no time, I started the engine and closed the door putting the behemoth into gear and I drove down to where the others were waiting and I put it into park getting out and meeting with my women, Noah and Christina as they helped lift Olivia up off the pavement to where she could be placed in the new vehicle; I made sure that there weren’t any surprises and I secured her in one of the back seating areas as the others quickly gathered what we had had in the back of the Bronco and placed it into the back of the new vehicle.

  “That thing’s huge…I wonder if it’ll even fit inside of the underground parking area…” Noah stated in an awestruck tone.

  “I guess we’ll find out when we get back there—let’s go before something else happens.” I answered as I climbed back into the driver’s seat as my women climbed in around me.

  I led the way away from the burning remains of our Bronco through the streets of the town in the direction of the underground parking structure where we had left the others—Noah and Christina followed pulling the small trailer behind them and it took us the next few minutes to reach the entrance to the underground parking structure and I led the way down to the steel shutter and got out briefly to bang on the side of it before getting back inside to wait as the shutters soon after were raised up and I proceeded to enter the underground parking area; luckily our new behemoth of a truck wasn’t too big to get inside and once Noah and Christina had entered behind us with the small trailer the shutters were sealed shut. The only thing on my mind at that point was getting some help for Olivia, who was still in bad condition—Noah and Christina had removed the piece of metal from her side and done what they could to stop the bleeding; the others of our group quickly ran to the side of our truck when they saw me carrying Olivia and I took her over to an area where sleeping bags were and I gently laid her down as Amy came over and took a look at her.