[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  The room we were in now was another waste processing room, and there was a control panel on the other side of it. The room was separated by a steel walkway and steel bars; down below we could see bodies of the dead floating in toxic sewage.

  “I’m surprised that there is all this sewage in the sublevels of the hospital.” Angie stated as she reached into her bag and put her gas mask back on.

  “I saw a large hole in the wall in one of the walls further back—that wall I’m guessing was near an underground city sewage line to the sewer or something; it would explain all this shit everywhere.” I answered as I pulled my gas mask up to my face from where it had been sitting on my chest.

  The smell alone was enough to defeat us but we pushed on, several zombies were on the other side of the walkway and since they were tough taking several hits in the heads and not falling dead—we pushed them off the railing into the dirty water below. The next room was of no importance and was littered with bodies, I didn’t take any chances and I opened fire on all of them putting rounds in the heads to make sure they didn’t come back. Just at that moment, the door splintered on the far side of the room and zombies started shuffling through—some bore signs of severe chemical exposure and others were burning; there were so many of them that they were stumbling over one another trying to get through the door.

  “Time to go!” Noah shouted as he fired twice at the oncoming zombies as we all ran past them.

  We all hurried through the other door into the next room which was another Cryogenic-Lab; things inside there seemed to be undisturbed and there weren’t any bodies on the floor anywhere and the area was relatively clean. I knew that the zombies were still coming and I noticed that the door we had just came through was electronic—I fiddled with the control panel on the wall and it electronically locked; we could all hear the zombies pounding on it from the other side. Noah went around looking about the room—it had cases of biohazard suits and gas masks—which many of the others took the opportunity to open the cases and grab masks for themselves; there were two doors on the north side of the room, one went to a room that seemed to be storage but it was securely nailed shut and was inaccessible. The other was plainly a room into another complex of areas and we could hear something moving about on the other side of the boarded up door.

  “You know—it’s amazing that this place is still tapped into the power grid after all of this time.” Noah stated as he glanced around at the lights which were somewhat dim but still on.

  “Further more reason to believe that there are other survivors around the area—unfortunately we don’t have the time to look for them.” I answered in deep thought.

  “Yeah—they might not be the friendly type either…” Angie added as she held Remy and Mace in her arms.

  “We should get some rest; we’ll be safe in here.” I stated after examining the entire layout of the room we were in.

  “Are you sure baby?” Angie asked with concern in her voice.

  “Yeah, both of those doors are boarded up and nothing can get in here.” I answered in as best of a reassuring tone as I could muster.

  “What about that door?” Christina asked pointing to the door on the south side.

  “Hold on, I’ll check it.” I answered slapping a clip into my M16 and going toward the door.

  Noah loaded his shotgun and accompanied me and we slowly opened the door, inside there was another room—it wasn’t as clean and well organized as the other one but it was clear from debris and bodies and from the various objects in the room it looked to be an infirmary.

  “Look, there’s the elevator going down.” I said pointing to the far end of the infirmary.

  “Damn, I’ve been wondering when we were going to find the next elevator.” Noah stated with a slight grin.

  “Is everything alright?” My dad asked as he sat the gear he and my mom had been carrying down.

  “Yes, I think that we should actually move into here and stay the night; we’ll be near the elevator.” I stated motioning toward the infirmary that Noah and I had just found.

  Everyone gathered up their things and we moved into the infirmary, Noah and Doug were on watch that night while some of us slept well others fitfully; I woke up at 5:30 the next morning to sounds coming from the other room we had been in the previous night. Noah had locked the door and he and Doug were staring at it with fear and dread, the others were waking up as well; Angie was awake and feeding Remy and Mace with the most recent bottle of breast milk that she had placed in her bag. Christina was changing Jude and the others were preparing their weapons.

  “How the hell could those things have gotten through that electronic door?” I asked in a low whisper.

  “It beats the hell out of me, dude.”

  “We have to get going before they find a way to get in here.” Noah answered in a low tone.

  “Alright, is everyone ready?” I asked standing and grabbing my personal gear.

  We all loaded into the elevator and I pushed the button for B3 the bottom level of the hospital which where the morgue was located; just then a loud bang from the other room startled everyone as whatever was behind the door started beating it into kindling.

  “Holy Shit!”

  “Why isn’t this damn thing going anywhere?” I shouted as I pressed and mashed the control buttons frantically.

  Just as I said that, the doors closed and we started our descent down; after several minutes we arrived on the bottom level and the doors opened into a hallway area, we rushed out and noticed zombies coming for us from down the hall, I opened fire on them blowing them to pieces—Angie and Noah backed me up and when they were all dead we rushed down the hall. That was when a loud noise made us look back at the elevator; something big had crashed through and was now trying to break the doors apart.

  “What the fuck is that?” Christina cried in fright as I was now trying my best to get everyone out of the hallway and away from the elevator.

  We rounded the hallway corner and waited in front of the doors to the morgue. Whatever it was smashed through the elevator doors and started coming down the hall in our direction, we all got ready with our guns aimed at the wall where whatever it was would appear; seconds passed and then there before our eyes was one of the ugliest, most grotesque monsters you could ever imagine—standing almost at 7 feet tall with four clawed feet and three heads was what looked like a mutated dog.

  “What the fuck is that?” Doug shouted as he flattened himself against the doors to the morgue.

  “It looks like a Cerberus…look at the three heads!” I stated as we slowly backed away from it as it snarled and barred its fangs at us.

  We all flung the doors to the morgue open with the thing right on our asses, we managed to kill all the zombies that were in the room—which only turned out to be two and get into the middle of the morgue just as the thing crashed through and stood there snarling at us.

  “How the hell are we going to kill this damn thing?” Brian asked as he frantically loaded his hunting rifle.

  “Go for the heads, I’m going after its’ legs!” I shouted as I aimed my M16 at the monster.

  I opened fire with my assault rifle, my bullets tearing through the monster’s body; Noah started shooting with his shotgun, Angie with her magnum, and everyone else with their various weapons. The creature charged but dashed headlong into a metal cabinet stunning itself—I opened fire on the thing’s back, my bullets tearing large holes through its flesh; everyone was shooting the thing causing it to slow in its attacks but it seemed to get more and more ferocious the more damage it received. I aimed my grenade launcher at its heads just as it was turning around and fired, everyone took cover as the grenade blew off one of the monster’s heads leaving it uncoordinated and not so successful when it came to attacking—Noah fired a well-placed shot and blew off its two front legs; Angie rushed over and fired twelve times at the hea
d with her magnum. Finally the monster died and everyone was able to catch their breath, we looked around the morgue; there were bodies in the cabinets and here and there on the floor.

  “Well…it looks like we can’t go down anymore…there has to be something in here that caused the zombie outbreak, let’s look around.” I instructed as I lowered my weapon and walked toward the far wall where shelves of stuff was.

  I examined a shelf of chemicals but they were the kind that were used to preserve bodies and I knew that they weren’t what caused the bodies to come to life; there were a number of strange toxins in flasks on one shelf but there wasn’t anything remotely suspicious.

  “What the fuck happened here?” I said out loud in an aggravated tone.

  Jason was wondering around and his foot rattled something on the floor, but he looked and all he could see was tiles with cracks.

  “What was that noise?” Noah said coming over to examine the place where Jason had stepped.

  He followed the cracks and they seemed to form a solid square shape on the floor.

  “Chaz!”

  “I think there’s something here…” Noah said calling me over.

  I looked it over and then stood up.

  “Could it be an opening to the underground?” I asked with a puzzled look.

  Doug found a crow bar that was on one of the tables and he stuck the end of it into the crack, I assisted him as did Noah and together we pried it off and there to our shock was a ladder going down into the dark below.

  “What the hell…?” Angie asked in a confused and worried tone.

  I took out my flashlight and shined it down, there was another floor not twelve feet below to what looked like another room.

  “There’s another room down there…come on guys, let’s check it out.” I stated taking the lead going down the ladder.

  I arrived on the bottom and saw that I was in what looked like a janitor’s closet; I opened the door that was there while the others followed. Inside was a Large break room—it had tables and vending machines as well as soda machines and coffee makers.

  “What the hell is this place?” Noah asked in confusion as he searched around the room.

  “This is fucked up man…how could this place actually exist below that morgue?” Brian asked in a skeptical tone as he and Christy stood together near one of the small tables in the center of the room.

  “Looks like someone might have been hiding something—possibly doing some kind of secret, illegal research down here; the morgue could have been a front to hide whatever the hell this place is.” I stated as I used my gloved fist to strike the side of one of the vending machines causing an individually wrapped pastry that looked like a cupcake to fall down to the dispenser where I reached down and grabbed it.

  After consuming the gooey treat, I walked over to the far side of the room and ran my hand over the wall looking for a light switch, I found one after some effort and flipped it on; the main light didn’t come on, but the emergency lights flickered on giving some light.

  “There must be a problem with the power here.” I stated in a low voice as I turned to face the others.

  The room was clean mostly; there was a fairly large puddle of mostly dried blood on the floor near the door that led to another hallway though. I walked over and gazed out the window in the door when suddenly a zombies’ face appeared on the other side of the glass, I just about yelled out in terror as the thing pushed the door open and sprinted in; it was followed by two more. I took out my magnum and stuck it into the zombie’s mouth who had scared the shit out of me and fired blowing its’ head to pieces, Angie and Noah rushed forward beating the other two down to the floor before putting bullets in their heads killing them.

  “Fuck!”

  “Scared the shit out of me!” I shouted still shaking.

  “Damn it—this place is overrun by those undead bastards just like everywhere else!” Noah shouted in anger as he ran to the door quickly shutting it.

  “I don’t get it…how the hell this place could be below the Oklahoma City Hospital in the first place!” Doug stated in deep thought as he looked around at the various fliers and other objects on the walls and bulletin boards.

  “Beats me…that’s what we are here to find out though, let’s see what we can find and stay together everyone—keep your weapons ready at all times.” I instructed as I once again started toward the door.

  I led the way out of the break room and into the outside hallway, there were several more zombies out there and the moment we stepped out they started coming for us; I aimed my M16 at one of their heads and opened fire, it didn’t fall and I kept shooting until my gun clicked—I brushed my hand around inside of my bag looking for another clip but there wasn’t any more.

  “Shit!”

  “I’m out of ammo!” I shouted in an aggravated tone as I slung my M16 back around my waist.

  “Fuck…so am I!” Noah shouted as he fired his last shell hitting one of the advancing zombies—but unfortunately not in a vital area.

  Angie took care of the zombies with what few bullets she had left then she was out as well.

  “We are going to have to find more bullets; we don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell without our guns!” Noah stated in a worried tone as he finished checking all his pockets for spare ammo and coming up with nothing.

  “I hear you!”

  “We have to find some ammo or else we might as well turn back now!” I agreed as I checked my .357 Magnum to see if it had any bullets.

  “That might be the wisest thing we could do for now.” My dad stated as he stood protectively in front of my mom.

  “Does anyone have any bullet’s left?” I asked looking around at everyone in my group.

  “Chaz, I have twelve rounds left.” Jason answered as he stepped forward.

  “I noticed an elevator in that break room we were just in, I don’t know where it goes but it could possibly be our ticket out of here; but the power to it is off, we need someone to look for the power control room and turn it on before we can leave—anyone with ammo, is there anyone else besides Jason?” I asked once again gazing at each member of the group.

  “I have 25 rounds left.” Doug answered smiling.

  “Chaz—look, I found a map!” Noah stated holding out a wall map that he found nearby.

  We all studied it for a few minutes.

  “Okay, according to this map the power room is just down this hall here at the end.” I said pointing ahead at the long vacant hallway that stretched out before us.

  After a few more seconds of chatter Doug and Jason prepared themselves and slowly went down the hall while we waited at the door to the break room; they rounded the corner and came to the power room door.

  “This is it—be prepared for anything, Jason.” Doug stated opening the door to the power room and cocking his shotgun.

  Inside it was dark and cold; the only light was from the emergency light in the corner of the room, which didn’t throw out much light at all. There were two large things near the door that looked like generators, Doug took hold of the handle and flipped it on but it didn’t do anything, smoke and sparks hissed from somewhere in the back of the room.

  “I see it—the wires have been disconnected; go turn it back off for a minute—I’ll have to reconnect those wires before this thing will work.” Doug instructed as he started removing tools from his gear.

  Jason did so and Doug set to fixing the wires, after a few minutes he reported that they were reconnected and for Jason to flip the switch; he did so and the whole room lit up. That was when Jason cried out as a huge shadow fell upon them, coming out from behind some machinery was a huge grotesque mutation of what looked like had once been a rat—but was now half the size of an elephant; its fur was torn away revealing viciously sharp curved claws and in its mouth were long curved tusks and razor
sharp fangs, its once harmless tail had become like a poison-tipped lance. The thing roared a horrific screech glaring hatefully at them with red eyes and then started coming for them causing the floor to vibrate as it trotted toward them.

  “Fuck!”

  “Let’s get back to the others!” Doug yelled as he ran to the door and opened it allowing Jason out first before he slammed it shut on the monster.

  He and Jason ran down the hall towards where we were waiting and I could tell that something was wrong by the way they were running; that’s when the doors to the power room violently flew off the hinges making a deafening crash against the opposite wall as something huge emerged from the opening, then we all seen it—coming out of the power room behind them—it was a huge grotesque thing that looked like it had once been a rat.

  “Go!”

  “The power should be on now!” Doug yelled as they caught up.

  We all ran back into the break room and with Noah’s help I knocked over the soda machine closest to the door hoping to buy us enough time to escape as we all started rushing into the elevator; we were just about all inside the elevator but Brian was still outside the elevator doors with Christy—who was holding onto their infant daughter Amy fearfully looking back at the door as he appeared to be trying to drop extra gear to make enough room. That was when the thing suddenly crashed through the wall and grabbed Brian by the ankle with its jaws—he screamed out in pain as the thing yanked him off his feet to the concrete floor stunning him as it continued to rip his flesh to the bone; Christy rushed over and started clubbing the monster with the butt of her gun—I attempted to shoot at the monster but my gun clicked and I remembered I was out of ammo.