[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “What the hell happened out there?” Hugo asked as he and the others clustered around us.

  “We were leaving the place where we found a little bit of food when a fucking Dozer appeared out of nowhere and destroyed the Bronco—when the world around us had finally stopped spinning we found that Olivia had been severely injured.” I explained as Rachel, Roxanne and Shae wrapped their arms around me weeping.

  “She’s got some broken ribs—the side wound needs to be stitched; luckily we have some antibiotics that should keep infection from setting in…I need to get this taken care of now though.” Amy answered as she retrieved her medical supplies and set to work.

  Over the next few hours we waited and watched as Olivia’s side wound was stitched and her entire stomach and upper torso was wrapped up in tight bandaging that looked like it would be uncomfortable—I knew that it was what had to be done though; she would be out of action for some time to come.

  “Looks like we’re going to have to stay here until she heals—we won’t be able to move her…” I stated as the others gathered around me.

  “Well…at least this will give the snow and ice a chance to melt off the roads—when Olivia’s injuries have healed, we’ll continue on our way.” Richard stated in deep thought.

  All that we could do at that point was settle in and wait for not only the snow and ice on the roads above to melt but also for Olivia’s injuries to heal—I helped unload the food supplies that we had found and then I settled down in our tent with Olivia; she was unconscious from the meds that Amy had given her but she would whimper in pain every now and then. Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe, Rachel, Roxanne and Shae joined me soon after and we ended up falling asleep—the others were around us doing various things and it seemed like the cold was settling in even though we were underground; as the days passed into weeks I could tell that the others were getting anxious, I knew that everyone was eager to leave this tomb as it had become. One day during the first week of April of 2020, I went into the makeshift shower room that we had set up in the far end of the underground parking area and I was about to shave the thick beard that I had grown recently when I noticed a large puddle of blood on the concrete floor before me—worried that one of the others had been injured, I followed the blood trail through the area until I arrived at what I recognized as being a service room; I opened the door and shined my flashlight around at the various pipes and things that lined the wall and then I caught sight of Olivia. She was slouched down on the floor in the far corner and she glanced at me and then looked away—I was confused as to what was going on, it seemed like she had been really distant the past few weeks and she hadn’t really said much of anything to anyone.

  “Baby…?”

  “What are you doing in here by yourself—where’s the blood coming from, are you hurt?” I asked taking several steps toward her.

  “Leave me alone…” Olivia replied as she continued to avert her gaze from mine.

  “What’s wrong—why are you in here by yourself?” I asked again—this time with a worried tone.

  “I said leave me alone!” Olivia answered as she suddenly pointed a revolver at me holding it in both hands.

  “Take it easy…I’m not going to hurt you, it’s me…Chaz—don’t you know who I am?” I asked holding both hands in the air so she could see that I wasn’t a threat to her.

  “Just go away—leave me to my fate…” She answered as she lowered the revolver and looked away.

  “What the hell are you talking about—why are you being like this?” I asked in an annoyed tone.

  I was trying to remain calm but the fact that she refused to even talk about why she was being the way she was, was starting to frustrate me; that was when she suddenly done the unthinkable—she stuck the barrel of the revolver into her mouth and pulled the trigger. The whole top part of her head exploded as the powerful bullet tore through and ricocheted off the ceiling hitting several pipes—I could hear the others running feet as they drew close and I stood there like a fool with my mouth hanging open, Olivia’s blood splattered on my face not knowing what to do or think.

  “What the hell happened?” Hugo asked as he and Beau along with many of the others arrived in the doorway behind me.

  “S-She shot herself…I found a puddle of blood in the shower area and followed it here—I tried to find out what was wrong with her but she wouldn’t tell me and then…and then she killed herself…” I answered in a broken tone as Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe, Rachel, Roxanne and Shae arrived around me and covered their faces at the horrific sight.

  There was a long period of silence and then Beau, Amy and several of the others brought a somewhat dirty cloth and covered Olivia’s body with it—I stood off to the side still in shock as my remaining women wrapped their arms around me comfortingly.

  “I failed her…I let her down…whatever it was that caused her to do what she done…it’s my fault.” I stated hanging my head.

  “Baby—you didn’t let her down, she let you down—she let all of us down as we all cared about her; she wouldn’t even talk to you and communicate—she failed us, not the other way around.” Jennifer stated with a firm look as she made me look up at her.

  “I know that you’re right…just feels like it’s my fault for not being able to even realize that there was a problem—I might have been able to stop this from happening had I known that something was wrong…” I answered as I wrapped my arms around Jennifer while bringing the others close.

  “Olivia was always the one out of all of us who was quiet and standoffish…at least that’s the impression that I always got.” Chloe stated several moments later.

  “Whatever the reason for her actions were—we have to move forward…” I stated as I turned to glance off to the side as Noah and Christina as well as Richard and Morgana were approaching.

  “Sorry that this happened, I know that you’ve been through a lot these past few weeks…” Noah stated patting my left shoulder.

  “Thanks, we’ll be alright…just have to keep going.” I answered with a sigh.

  “We should take her body up above and bury it—that way at least her spirit—as troubled as it obviously was—can find some peace.” Richard added as he held a shovel in his right hand.

  “I agree…she wasn’t the first person to resort to taking their own life in these dark times and she won’t be the last…let’s get this done.” I answered as I turned and walked over to where Hugo and the others had placed Olivia’s body on a flat trolley-like cart with wheels on the bottom and I took hold of the handle and pulled it after me as I headed for the steel shutters.

  Noah and Christina went over and activated the controls on the wall causing the shutters to rise—surprisingly there weren’t any dead-heads or other mutations on the other side waiting for us and I was able to pull the cart up to street level and back into the small field that was located a little way behind the ruins of the hotel; there weren’t any dead-heads around the area and the place was eerily quiet.

  “Let’s get the hole dug as quickly as we can—I don’t trust this silence.” I stated as Richard tossed me a shovel before he started digging himself.

  Others came over and joined in and it didn’t take long before we had a six-foot-deep hole dug and then we placed Olivia’s body down at the bottom of the hole before covering it up—I took out my knife and carved her name on a piece of wood that I found nearby and then Jennifer and Sheila helped me make a cross out of the wood before it as driven into the ground at the head of the grave.

  “That’s it…let’s get back inside before something happens.” I stated leading the way back toward the entrance to the underground parking structure.

  Once everyone was back inside and the steel shutters were closed, I turned to the entire group that gathered before me.

  “We’ll leave this place and get back underway tomorrow—so rest up tonight.” I stated loo
king each of them in the eye.

  They all nodded in agreement and from their actions and attitudes after that it seemed like the moral had been restored a bit—I knew that we had been stuck here in this area for a long time and it had started to drag everyone down; perhaps that had been why Olivia had lost her way—maybe she had fallen into a depression that she couldn’t escape from and saw no other alternative but to end it all, still—like Jennifer had said—she had let everyone who cared about her down. The rest of that day seemed to drag by and even though it was good knowing that we would be leaving the next day, there was still a sense of dread—not knowing what could be out there waiting on us, especially since it had been so long since we had gotten stuck in the area; I settled down into our tent with my women and we soon after fell asleep. It seemed like the next morning came quickly enough and I woke rising out of the entanglement that me and my women had been sleeping in and I rose getting my clothes and gear on as they done the same—we soon after took the tent down and stashed it inside of the back of our massive red behemoth of a vehicle and we loaded up food, weapons and ammo caches as well; I had noticed that whoever had owned the massive red beast of a vehicle that we now called our own had used a stencil to paint the word “Marauder” on the side of it near the driver’s door and I had thought to myself that it was kind of ironic that it was named after the enemy forces that had once worked for the man responsible for this entire mess. Once everyone had loaded what we had brought with us as well as what we had found since we had been stuck in the area, I started the engine of our vehicle and waited as Noah opened the shutters—then I led the way out and up to the street as the others followed in their vehicles; leaving the small town of Williston seemed like a breath of fresh air and within a few hours I managed to get us back onto our original route and we started heading back north along highway 52. By the end of the same day, we had crossed over into Saskatchewan, Canada and the roadway ahead was littered with wrecked and abandoned vehicles that people had obviously tried to escape across the border in many years before—there weren’t any dead-heads or other mutations anywhere in sight, which was a little strange; the wilderness was dense and it spread out ahead of us for hundreds of miles. I drove on up until sometime after midnight and then I stopped along the roadway and let Jennifer drive as I settled into the back with Chloe, Rachel, Roxanne and Shae and soon after fell asleep—I remember having an odd dream during those small hours of the morning as we continued traveling; in my dream I remember that we had stopped in the forest along the roadway to see if we could hunt something as we still needed food, I had gone into the deep forest taking Jennifer, Sheila, Shae, Billy and Kayla while the rest of the group had stayed behind with the vehicles. We had made it deep into the uncharted area and found a stream that flowed along the rocky terrain, there we had spotted several large deer that we were preparing to shoot—I fired at one and Jennifer and Sheila had mortally wounded another; Shae ran forward following the blood trail as Billy and Kayla followed, the blood trail led us deeper into the woods to a place where there was hardly any light from the sun above us penetrating the forest canopy above. That was where we came upon the deer that we had shot—except the bodies of the animals had been torn to pieces and blood was everywhere; that was when the outline of a massive creature of some kind fell on us and I awoke with a jolt that startled Rachel—who had been sleeping on my chest.

  “What’s wrong, babe?” Sheila asked as her attention focused on me.

  “Another of those damned dreams…the ones that usually always predict something…” I answered trying to gather my wits as I grabbed a bottle of water to combat my dry mouth.

  “What did you see this time…?” Jennifer asked with a concerned tone as she continued to drive.

  “We stopped along the side of the road in this really thick, dense forest area to hunt…I led a small group into the woods including you, Sheila and Shae as well as Billy and Kayla and we came to this stream where we shot at some deer…we followed the blood trail into the deeper part of the woods only to find that the bodies of the deer had been torn to pieces and then this massive creature fell upon us and…then I woke up.” I explained with a distant tone as I stared blankly out the side window of our vehicle.

  “Did you see what this creature was?” Rachel asked as her hand found mine.

  “No—it was massive whatever it was though…I’m trying to wrack my brain to think of what it could have been…I’m sure that it had to have been a bioweapon of some sort though.” I continued as I turned to face her and the others.

  “Hopefully it was only a dream…I know that our food stock is still very much an issue and that we’re going to have to stop here sooner or later to find more—if that means stopping to go hunting then that’s what we’ll have to do.” Sheila stated in a technical tone.

  “The next place we’ll pass through is Regina—there’s still a lot of woodland between here and there.” Chloe reported as she looked over the road atlas we had been using.

  That was when Beau’s voice echoed through the CB that I had placed on the dash of our new beast of a vehicle.

  “Chaz—I’ve been thinking that since this area is so vast and open that it might be a good place to stop and see if we can’t go hunting; our food stock is getting low again.”

  “I knew it…we’ll stop up ahead then.” I answered as the dread of what I had dreamed permeated throughout my mind.

  “What will be, will be—I can’t let something I dreamed about dominate my actions.” I stated firmly as we rounded a bend in the highway and soon came to a flat in the wilderness.

  Jennifer parked our Marauder and I grabbed my weapons and gear as my women done the same—the other were stopping behind us and they met us on the outside of our vehicle once we had all climbed down.

  “What’s it like riding in that thing—being up so high off the ground?” Billy asked with an amused look as Kayla and Madison joined him.

  “It’s nice—at least we won’t have to worry about flood waters again.” I answered as I glanced at the massive tires next to where we stood.

  “We’ll set up a parameter while someone goes out hunting—we’re going to have to find something soon, we can’t go on without food.” Hugo stated as he held his assault rifle in his arms.

  “I’ll go along with Chaz and whoever else he takes—he’ll need help if we’re able to bag a moose or something else.” Billy stated as Kayla turned to Madison directing her to stay behind as she too joined Billy.

  I already knew who else was going as I knew it’d be the same people as I had taken in my dream—but I wanted to throw it in a loop in case the events of the dream turned out to be true; I turned and motioned to both Noah and Christina as well as Richard and Morgana before loading up on as much ammo as I could carry.

  “I’ll take Jennifer, Sheila, Shae, Billy, Kayla, Noah, Christina, Richard and Morgana.” I stated hoping in the back of my mind that the extra people who hadn’t been there in my dream would sort of nullify it as well as help us if we did bump into anything nasty.

  “Okay—we’ll wait here and make sure that nothing happens; hopefully you guys can bring back some game—good luck and watch your asses.” Beau stated with a chuckle.

  I nodded and waited as everyone gathered what they needed and then I led the way off the roadway into the thick woods that spread out all around us—the birds were singing and there were other forest sounds as we progressed, which seemed to calm my nerves; after several long minutes of hiking through thick brush and going up and down through gullies and thick groves, we came to a rushing stream that seemed to be flowing southeast. I scanned the bank of the stream and soon after caught sight of several large deer that were grazing on the far end of the stream—they hadn’t noticed us yet and I motioned for the others to get down behind the tall brush and grass that grew around us as I aimed my AR-15 at the nearest deer, which had a rack of antlers some six to eight poi
nts. Billy done the same as did Richard—Shae was beside of me and she had her rifle aimed at one of the smaller deer that was a doe and I soon after squeezed the trigger of my weapon as the others did the same; the bullets tore into the sides and flanks of the deer as one or two of them fell to the ground, the others that had been hit took off into the thick trees. I glanced at Jennifer, Sheila and Shae who I had told of my dream and raised my eyebrow as their gazes met mine—I knew that we needed that meat and I quickly turned and ran across the stream to where the deer that had fallen lay and Richard and Morgana met my gaze and nodded.

  “We’ll get these field dressed and make sure that there aren’t any dead-heads around the area.” Richard stated as he took out his large knife and knelt down to begin the work.

  I nodded and led the others after the deer that had escaped running through the thicket of trees and brush—the woods that we entered were deep, dark and there was a feeling of dread as we continued following the blood trail that the deer had left; I noticed that the sounds of birds and other wildlife had vanished and I kept telling myself that it was because our gunshots has scared them away. I led the others into a darkened grove of woods where the sun seemed to have a hard time penetrating the forest canopy above and that was when I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight before us—there we found the bodies of the deer, but they had been torn to pieces and blood and gore was everywhere.