[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “Good shot…I doubt that killed it—when we first got over to Anchorage, Hugo and the others saw one of those things and they used the AT4 rocket launcher on it and blew a hole straight through it but it didn’t stop it…damned thing got right back up and started coming after us again.” Richard stated over the CB.

  “We really need to find the others and get the fuck out of this place—if that’s what we’re going to have to be dealing with from this point on, I’m not so sure we can hold out—even back at Echo Bay.” I stated with a dark look as I sped up to catch up with Richard and Morgana who were a good way ahead of us.

  “Carmacks is just up ahead—the station is there, let’s get the rig refueled and then head east along the road that we came on with Hugo and the others…they might be just ahead somewhere waiting on us.” Richard stated over the CB after several more minutes had passed.

  Within minutes we arrived at the station that Richard had spoken of and Darrell quickly got the diesel dispenser ready as I checked inside for any energy for the pumps—Ivy came with me as my other women waited in the marauder and we managed to find a generator that looked like it would run for around fifteen minutes before running dry itself, I started it and flipped the switch as Ivy watched my back; we headed back outside and Darrell started filling the fuel tank of the rig. After he was finally finished, we got back on the road and soon after Richard turned east heading along the Yukon River and we followed after him—according to the map we were heading toward the settlement of Faro where we’d come to a highway that would lead us back to the road we had used ourselves; the sky was starting to get dark and the day was waning quickly, we hadn’t gone more than twenty miles when we came upon the scene of what looked like a crash that had happened not long before. As we got close I could make out the wreckage and I recognized it as being that of the A-10 Warthog that Beau had been piloting and I sped up until I was close to the raging fires that were burning the jet fuel and I stopped getting out with my weapons ready.

  “That’s the plane that Beau was flying when he saved my ass just outside of our fortress…” I answered as my women gathered around me tears gathering in their eyes.

  “It looks like…like something punched a hole through the damned thing…” Billy stated with a look of disbelief.

  “If something like this with all of its firepower couldn’t take down those fucking things then I don’t know what else can…” Clancy stated in a tone that was full of doubt and disbelief.

  “Look at this…” Richard stated as he and Morgana approached where we stood.

  He was holding an empty parachute pack.

  “Where did you find that?” I asked as a spark of hope ignited inside me.

  “Over there—there are boot prints in the mud that lead off to the northeast…there’s a good chance that Beau is still alive out there somewhere.” Richard answered smiling.

  “Let’s follow the tracks and see if we can’t find him—we’ll leave the vehicles here.” I stated turning to the others.

  Everyone grabbed their weapons and followed after Richard and Morgana and the trail led us into the thick wilderness and we soon came upon a small campfire that looked like it had just been built—there was a rustle of leaves and then a voice that called out to us in a warning tone not to move; we turned and seen that it was Beau and he was coming out of the darkness with his assault rifle pointed at us.

  “Chaz…what the hell are you guys doing way out here?” He asked once he saw that it was us.

  “We came out here to find more food and supplies—we’re running low back home and we had to come all the way out here to find anything substantial.” I answered as my women wrapped their arms around me.

  “I see…I’ve been tracking Hugo and Amy for a few hours now and I just stopped to rest and have something to eat…” Beau stated halfway turning to face his small fire.

  “How far do you think they went?” Richard asked in a concerned tone.

  “I’m not sure—it all happened when I swooped down to attack one of those fucking Destroyers but it hit me and destroyed my jet…I’m damned lucky that it was more interested in the fuel fire of the wreckage than it was me and I was able to escape.” Beau answered grimly.

  “You’re talking about those huge motherfuckers with the spiked limbs?” Sheila asked raising her right eyebrow.

  “Yeah—we nicknamed them Destroyers as it seemed to suit them after we saw what they were capable of doing…we had two of them casing us, one split off and went after Richard and Morgana while the other one continued after Hugo and Amy…” Beau answered wiping the sweat from his face with his sleeve.

  “Let’s get the hell back to the vehicles, it’s not safe out here—we’ll continue to head up the road and see if we can’t find Hugo and Amy.” I stated as I directed everyone’s attention back to the fact that we were all standing out in the middle of the woods completely exposed.

  We quickly went back the way that we had come with Beau in tow and we made it back to our vehicles and left the area heading slightly northeast toward Faro—we had almost reached the town when we heard gunfire, following the sound we soon came upon Hugo and Amy trying desperately to fight off what seemed like an army of dead-heads and other mutations mixed in; I ran into the area shooting—my bullets tearing through the heads of countless zombies splattering the area with blood and brains. Seeing us seemed to reignite Hugo and Amy’s will to live and they fought back fiercely—I unsheathed my sword and started lopping off heads and decapitating one dead-head after another, Hugo tossed a grenade into the far end of the mass and it exploded sending bodies, dirt and fire in all directions; when the smoke finally cleared, we saw that over a hundred bodies lay before us on the street.

  “Chaz—I’m surprised to see you guys out here…did something happen back at Echo Bay?” Hugo asked in a concerned tone.

  “We were attacked before we left out by marauders…they had artillery but we were able to destroy them—not long after that we left out to hunt for food and supplies because we’re running low back home; we ended up going all the way to Whitehorse and we managed to find a good stash of canned goods that we have on the trailer of that semi over there.” I explained casually.

  “I see…Beau mentioned something about there being a marauder force back near home that he helped destroy—we managed to find a great deal of weapons that we can use to help defend the fortress, but we’ve had problems with a new type of bioweapon.” Hugo explained as he led us to the Zetros that they had left just up the street.

  He opened the side door to the Zetros and I saw first hand what he was talking about—they had found what seemed like a stack of crates that contained anything from assault rifles to RPGs; there were also large crates of ammunition and then I noticed that they had also found melee weapons and I knew that my own intuition to gather them had also crossed their minds as well.

  “I know what you’re thinking about the melee weapons, but it doesn’t hurt to have them.” Hugo stated upon seeing my expression.

  “I agree completely—I have had the same thought and found some of my own along the way here.” I answered as I motioned to my sword that was strapped in its scabbard to my back.

  “We shouldn’t hang around here for longer than we have to—there’s nothing keeping us from heading back to Echo Bay now that we’ve found everyone.” Beau stated in a casual tone.

  “We’re in the high elevations…it might take a bit to get back over the mountains and into Northwest Territories…let’s go everyone.” I answered as I turned and led my women back to our marauder.

  “This is the town of Faro—if we head southeast toward Ross River and Frances Lake, we can get back on the route that we used to get over here…it might be easier than the one you guys used before.” I stated as I turned back to the others as my women climbed up into our vehicle.

  “That sounds good—we’ll follow you�
�the route we took was really bad, I’m surprised that we made it at all.” Amy stated as she glanced at Hugo and Beau, who both nodded.

  Richard and Morgana both also seemed relieved that we weren’t going back the same way as they had come and they got into their modified RV and started the engine—before we departed from Faro, we checked a nearby travel station and fueled up the vehicles that were running low; luckily that looked like the place where Hugo and Amy had been holed up for a little bit before we had found them and the generator had been working to power the pumps. We soon after left the area fearful that more hordes of dead-heads and other mutations as well as more of those Destroyers would be coming and we traveled along the paved highway that led us away from Faro in the direction of southeast—some parts of the roadway were littered with wrecked and overturned vehicles and we were forced to come to an almost crawl in order to get out and move them out of the way so we could get the semi that Darrell was driving through as well as our other vehicles, I noticed that as morning approached the roadway started getting steeper and steeper and I knew that we were getting higher up into the mountains; it was around noon of the following day when we passed by the dirt road that led to Frances Lake and soon after I found the route that we had used and turned off the roadway to our left.

  “This is it guys—this will lead us back the way we came.” I stated over the CB.

  “Good—lead the way.” Hugo answered on his end.

  “We’re going to have to take it slow—the rig is having issues with this elevation.” Darrell reported over the CB seconds later.

  “Okay—we’ll go as slow as we need to…we can’t afford to have the rig break down, it’s the only way that we have to haul the food back to Echo Bay.” I answered speaking into the CB microphone as I continued leading the way along the familiar roadway that we had used weeks before.

  The trip continued and as we got higher and higher into the mountains of southeastern Yukon, the rig started to really show signs of trouble and the third day of the trek through the mountains we had reached the border with Northwest Territories and we were close to the Nahanni National Park when the rig stalled out and we were forced to stop as smoke started billowing out from underneath the hood; I stopped near what looked like some kind of building that looked like it had been privately owned by some wealthy person back in the day. As I got a better look at it, I could tell that it had been some sort of a ski resort and it looked like the parking area for the moment were clear and free of dead-heads or any other bothersome mutation as well as mostly clear of wrecked vehicles—I directed the others attention to it and we pulled our vehicles off the roadway and into the parking lot of the place.

  “This looks like a safe place for us to stop and catch our breath while we figure out what’s wrong with the rig.” I stated as everyone gathered around me in a circle.

  “Good idea—we should sweep the area to make sure that there aren’t any surprises waiting to ambush us.” Hugo stated grasping his assault rifle.

  I nodded and gathered my weapons from our marauder as my women done the same, Billy and Beau as well as Darrell and Clancy all worked on opening the hood of the rig and then they started trying to figure out how to make the repairs as the rest of us spread out around the resort and started doing sweeps of the area; I led my women up to the entrance of the place and pulled on the door handles trying to get the doors to open but it seemed like something on the other side was keeping them shut.

  “There might have been survivors here at some point in the past—ones who wired these doors closed…let’s see if we can’t find another way inside.” I stated turning to face Jennifer and Sheila, who were the closest ones to where I stood.

  “I hope that there isn’t something around here that we can’t handle…” Rachel stated in a worried tone as she clutched her weapon and glanced around at the others.

  “We’ll stay here and keep watch—you guys be careful in there.” Roxanne added as she turned to Angel, Chelsea and Ivy, who all nodded.

  I shared kisses with each of them hoping that there wasn’t something lurking about that they couldn’t take down and then I led the way around the side of the enclosed porch with Jennifer and Sheila close behind me and we came upon a large picture window that had been smashed—broken glass was all over the place and it looked like someone had attempted to push a large bookcase from the inside up in front of the window but it looked like the barricade had failed to keep whatever had broken through out. I carefully climbed through the window and pushed the bookcase away enough for us to get through and once Jennifer and Sheila were inside behind me, I shined my flashlight around at the room we were now inside of—it was a massive living room area, the walls were decorated in a rustic style of wallpaper that went well with the other decorations that were here and there around the room; there was a massive large-screen TV off to my left that had been knocked over and smashed, various other pieces of furniture had been overturned and there were traces of old, dried blood here and there as well and other dried substances that were probably mud.

  “It’s getting cold…last time I checked, it was getting close to September…” Jennifer stated shivering as her teeth chattered.

  “As bad as the weather as been the past few months I have a bad feeling that we might possibly be getting snowbound up here—it’s just a feeling that I’m getting.” Sheila added as she wrapped her jacket around herself tighter.

  I went over to the front doors and found that the door handles had been wrapped with what looked like a connection cable for the TV and I quickly used my combat knife cutting through them easily and then pushing the doors open—Rachel, Roxanne, Angel, Chelsea and Ivy greeted me with hugs and kisses and they came into the room we were in and they looked around shining their lights at the various things that were around us.

  “There aren’t any dead-heads or other creatures in here?” Rachel asked with a concerned look.

  “None that we have found yet—you all stay here; I’m going to sweep the rest of the ground floor and then we’ll head upstairs.” I answered as I gripped my AR-15 handing my M16 to Jennifer.

  Hugo and Amy as well as Thomas and Kari came into the room behind my women and I felt a little better about leaving them there as I turned and headed off to check the other rooms around the ground floor, the first one that I came to was the kitchen—pots and pans were scattered all over the floor and it looked like there had been some sort of a struggle there because there was one area near the fridge where a large puddle of dried blood could be seen; seconds later I found a pile of human bones that had obviously once been a survivor, an old .22 pistol was still clutched in their skeletal hand. I knelt down and pulled the weapon from its clutches and checked the chamber—it was empty and I tossed it aside knowing that it was useless without bullets; I casually opened the fridge and then backed away closing it again as a rancid smell hit me in the face.

  “Damn…” I stated hacking and coughing at the stench.

  After I had regained my composure, I continued through the kitchen noticing a small room leading to the back door that had a washer and dryer that was covered with dust—the back door was all boarded up and it looked like metal bolts had been driven through the wood to reinforce it, so I didn’t worry about it and I continued into a hallway that led to a dining room—the table had been turned over and parts of its legs were missing and the chairs that had once been there were thrown and tossed about, I didn’t spend much time in that room because the windows were all boarded up and there was nothing of interest there; I continued into the next hallway that led me back around to several rooms that looked like lounges and I checked them making sure that there wasn’t anything inside of them and then pushed on finally finding a good-sized bathroom that was empty as well. I noticed that the wall mirror was covered with old, dried blood and upon further examination revealed the decaying corpse of a woman—the body was only a few weeks into decompos
ition and it looked like she had been a survivor who had probably tried to seek refuge inside of this resort.

  “Looks like you killed yourself…probably lost hope of survival.” I stated out loud as I stared at the body.

  I soon after found another pistol nearby that the woman had used to blow out her own brains and when I checked the chamber I found at it had five rounds, so I took the gun and put it into my pack before heading back out of the bathroom; my sweep led me back to the living area were my women and the others were waiting and my women were glad to see that I was okay as they ran to me hugging and kissing me.

  “The first floor looks clear—there was what looked like a small laundry room off from the kitchen that led to the back door but it looked like it was boarded and bolted shut.” I reported as my attention went to Hugo.

  “Good—the outside parameter was clear as well and it looks like aside from that large busted out window over there this place is secure.” Hugo stated as he motioned to the one that I had came through with Jennifer and Sheila.

  “Let’s check the second floor and any other areas up there and make sure that this place is safe.” I stated as I turned and led the way up the nearby staircase as my women and the others followed.

  Arriving on the second floor, we saw that the landing curved around to the opposite side and it was open to the lower level—a hallway spread out from there and then there was a small sitting area with a large triangular window that looked out on the mountains; I glanced at the window only to see large snowflakes falling down out of the sky and I sighed knowing that what we had feared would happen was. I turned back to the hallway and led the way down checking each doorknob that we came to, a few of them were locked but a few of them were able to be opened and I stepped inside of each of those rooms scanning the rooms for signs of danger; the others behind me done the same as my women stayed close to me. The first room that I checked was what had been a child’s bedroom or at least one that a child had stayed in at some point—toys were scattered all over the floor and aside from a rather large splotch of dried blood on the wall near the bed, the room was empty; Jennifer grabbed a few of the small toys putting them into her bag and I understood why after I saw what they were, knowing that our kids back home would get more use out of them than whoever had left them here.