[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “Damn, it’s dark in here with just that bluish light.” Noah stated in an aggravated tone.

  “There’s a light switch on the other side of the room—let’s turn it on and see what we can see.” I instructed as I walked to the other side of the room and examined the door to the morgue.

  Noah walked over to the wall near the door to the lounge and turned the light on, the area was littered with trash and garbage—a lot like it was from upstairs and there were two corpses near the other side of the soda machine which were in the last stages of decay; almost all of the flesh had either been eaten off or had rotted off. We continued through the door and found the morgue, flasks and beakers were shattered here and there on the floor and some of the lockers which they stored bodies inside were wide open, Noah and Christina along with Subotai went into the side room on the right while the rest of us looked over the main room.

  “Umm…you guys, you might wanna take a look at this!” Noah called out in a voice that sounded pretty urgent.

  “What is it?” I asked taking the lead.

  Once everyone was inside the room Noah, Christina and Subotai were, we all seen what they were talking about; there on a metal examination table was what appeared to be a fairly ‘fresh’ corpse that had needles and tubes sticking out all over the body. There were flasks of some sort of liquid substance, which the tubes were connected to and the tubes looked to be mostly going into the brain of the corpse.

  “Look at this—I think this is some sort of a clue!” Noah stated handing me a clipboard.

  “Bio-genetic Restoration…M-Class patient B…died three days before injection A…underwent metamorphosis during first twenty-four hours after injection, patient broke loose and killed four lab workers by devouring flesh and vital organs…patient B was then restrained and then underwent further injection of the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin—a mutagenic agent developed by N.R Bowman…patient B then underwent rapid stages of decay and seemingly ‘died’…” I read from the clipboard.

  “They’re talking about this corpse…aren’t they?” Christina asked pointing down at the table.

  “Yes…so this shit in this flask must be what they used on the corpses…both here and in Oklahoma City.” I answered as I looked up at her briefly then back at the corpse.

  Suddenly the corpse raised up and attempted to climb off of the table—the flask the chemical was inside of fell to the floor and shattered, I aimed my M16 at its head and opened fire sending somewhere between 12 to 19 rounds into its brain which dropped it to the floor where it made a pool of blood.

  “Holy shit man!”

  “That thing was still alive!” Noah shouted in disbelief as he was practically backed up onto the far countertop.

  “I hope there aren’t any more of those around this room.” Doug stated with a hint of worry in his voice.

  “Look you guys, here’s some more info on what they were doing…it’s a head-researcher’s log I guess…listen to this.” I stated as I picked up a small stack of papers from a nearby table close to where the corpse had been.

  September 14, 2000

  “Many subjects were injected with our new bio-genetic ‘virus’ as some of the other lab workers have come to call it, now only a few in this morgue have not. I received special instructions to carry on with the testing and research from the head of the project in Oklahoma City, Mr. N.R. Bowman, he and his top lab technician J. Conner created the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin and are testing its effects on bodies of the dead in the Oklahoma City Hospital.”

  September 22, 2000

  “I received a fax today from Oklahoma City, it seems that Mr. Bowman and Mr. Conner have successfully created what they have named ‘The Entity’ and from what I could make out of the fax, it’s some sort of large mutation that they plan to unleash on the system soon.”

  October 11, 2000

  “Sorry for the lack of entries as of late, but I’ve been busy trying to complete the last stages of our research here, it seems that several incidents on the outside have happened and some innocent bystanders have been killed by what the outsiders have come to call “The Undead”…word of this got out in the first place due to Bowman’s incompetence concerning the incident with that Cobb woman and now if the army or other major branches of the government get word of what we are doing, they will most likely come and shut us down.”

  October 14, 2000

  “I’m afraid that this will probably be my last entry, several of the lab workers here are now dead due to subjects we injected with the chemical biting and ‘eating’ them…from what I hear chaos has erupted on the outside as well, our hell-spawned creations are popping up all over the place and I’m afraid that it’s a little late for me to be having regrets; it’s too late now that all of us have opened Pandora’s Box…God help us all, and may he forgive us for what we have unleashed.”

  “That’s all of it…” I stated as I looked at the back of the last page to make sure there wasn’t any more.

  “So this Bowman guy…he’s the one who started this?” Angie asked as she came to stand close to me wrapping an arm around my waist.

  “Sounds like it, I wonder what that ‘Entity’ thing is though, it was only mentioned once and not talked about again.” I answered with a frown as I was still looking over the papers.

  “Could it have been that three-headed dog thing that attacked us in the morgue in the Oklahoma City Hospital?” Roxanna asked after a moment of silence had passed.

  “I don’t know…” I answered in deep thought.

  “Come to think of it…wasn’t there some big deal scandal involving a CDC employee three years before the outbreak…the name Bowman sounds kind of familiar…” My dad stated all of a sudden.

  “I don’t know—I didn’t pay very close attention to the news back in 1997…” I answered as I turned to glance at him briefly.

  “What do we do now?” Noah asked as he now appeared to be calm.

  “I think we should look around a little more and see if we can find any more information…then head back to Oklahoma City to try and straighten this whole mess out.” I answered as I stuffed the documents into my pack.

  “Staying down here might not be a very good idea considering we’ve all seen how much stronger these damned zombies have gotten…we might get trapped down here and not be able to get out.” Noah stated as he came to stand near Angie and I.

  “Yeah…you’re right.”

  “Let’s get the hell back to the truck then.” I answered as I turned to face the rest of the group.

  We all took the elevator back up to the first floor and fearfully waited as the doors opened and the zombie, which had chased us into the elevator attacked us once again; I kicked it in the chest sending it flying backward into the opposite wall where it fell on its back, then as it started to get up Noah, Subotai and I aimed our M16’s at it and opened fire mowing its body all to pieces. Finally after there wasn’t anything left, we moved on out the double doors and past the front desk to the front doors.

  The sun was setting on a city filled with death; cold wind blew our way as we made our way through the heap of bodies and finally all climbed aboard our truck, Doug started it up and started out toward the highway. We traveled steadily for the next two days until we had to stop somewhere near Ringgold, Georgia to get some fuel—we all got off and looked around the area while Doug took care of pumping the fuel; Jason and Mark were goofing off while Roxanna smoked a cigarette.

  I was helping Angie and Jennifer gather road food in a paper bag inside of a nearby gas station across the street while most everyone else was standing a distance from the truck; Jason and Mark were running around and bumped into Doug causing him to spray the fuel all over himself and the area; just at that moment Roxanna tossed her cigarette butt which was still burning onto the pavement. Angie and I suddenly had to duck as a powerful explosion rocked the area, then Noah came runni
ng into the store shouting for us to come outside quick; we all went outside and had to shield our eyes as what was left of the semi burnt out of control.

  “Nothing could have survived through that…” Subotai stated as he came jogging back toward us with the empty fire extinguisher in hand that he had been using to try and put out the flames that had gotten a little too close to where most of the group had been standing before the catastrophic explosion.

  “What the hell happened out here!?” I asked in an almost irate tone.

  “It looked like those two kids were goofing off and I know for a fact that Roxanna was puffing away on a cigarette.” My dad answered as he took a few steps toward the burning shell of what had been the semi.

  “Fucking idiot…anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that you’re not supposed to smoke around fuel pumps.” Noah stated with a disgusted tone.

  “This is just great—now we’re gonna be on foot, not to mention the fact that we’ve lost four more people.” I shouted in an agitated tone of voice as I kicked at an empty tin can lying on the pavement.

  “Oh shit!”

  “We better get out of here!” Noah said slinging his shotgun off his shoulder and loading it.

  There across there street were around 12 zombies coming our way in a steadily in a light sprint, Noah and Subotai opened fire on a few of them then we all took off down the street away from the scene; after about three hours of walking and cautiously evading zombies, we were getting close to Fort Oglethorpe finally.

  “I wonder if my dad and Melvin survived through this…” Angie stated to me as we walked side by side in the lead.

  “Didn’t that message spray-painted on the wall say that whoever wrote it was headed to Cleveland?” I asked as I turned to face her.

  “The message said that…but I don’t see why they would go there…I think that it’s fairly possible that they might still be alive and in the area…could we go up to my dad’s shop and see if he is there by any chance?” Angie asked looking up into my eyes giving me that heart-warming yet pleading look she always did when she thought she was asking too much from me.

  “We could check and see…now that we’ve lost four people it would help to get some more that could help us ward off zombies and help protect the others.” I answered as I kissed her lips giving them a little nibble.

  So we started up again in the direction of Angie’s dad’s shop, Donnie was complaining about sore feet the whole way and finally my sister as well as several of the others told him to shut up; once we arrived in the area we seen that it was in fact pretty much blocked up, burnt out cars and trucks littered the road and the ground was covered with broken glass and dried blood. Flies were steadily buzzing around something that was sprawled over the hood of a smashed pickup; once we got close we seen that it was a decaying middle-aged woman who looked like she had been slung through the windshield in an accident and then had been eaten, the smell was rancid and several of us had to vomit at the smell.

  We somehow managed to make it past that and into the front lot area of Angie’s dad’s auto shop, we stopped to catch our breath and suddenly a bullet hit and blew out the window to a parked car nearby; a man stood up on the roof to the shop shouting at us—he had a hunting rifle with a scope in his hands.

  “Dad!”

  “It’s me—don’t shoot us!” Angie called waving her free arm up at the shooter.

  “Angie?”

  “What in the name of hell are you doing here?” He called down.

  “We’ve been trying to survive long enough to uncover the truth on why these damned zombies first attacked—we’ve lost some people; some of them were pretty good friends!” I called up as I followed after her with the others behind me.

  “Is that so?”

  “Well, let me get off of this damn thing!” He called climbing down a ladder that he had conveniently placed against the side of the shop in the back.

  Once he was down, he came up to meet everyone.

  “I know you Chaz, but who’s everyone else here?” He asked briefly looking at me before his glance went to the others.

  “Dad, these are Chaz’ family members—his dad and mom, his sister and her husband…and these are your granddaughters Remy and Mace.” Angie answered as she introduced each member of our family and then showed him our daughters who stood at her feet.

  He bent down and took a few seconds to greet them and introduce himself before he stood back up facing the rest of us.

  “Okay—nice to meet you, who are these others?” Angie’s dad asked.

  “My name is Jennifer Anderson—I’m Chaz and Angie’s girlfriend.” Jennifer stated smiling.

  “I’m Noah Patterson; this is my wife Christina, and our son Jude.” Noah answered nodding at him.

  “I’m James Farmer and this is Alex Thurman.” James said shaking Angie’s dad’s hand.

  “Subotai…” Subotai answered in a shy tone.

  “My name is Kira Foster and this is my friend Meghan Jones; nice to meet you.” Kira said as she made a gesture toward Meghan who was almost at her side.

  “Last but not least—this is a young girl we picked up in Utah, her name is Rachel Morrison.” I finished as I motioned to the last remaining survivor of the Carroll group.

  “Nice to meet y’all—my name’s Cedric McBride; you can call me either Cedric, Junior, or Big C.” Cedric stated as he stretched while holding his rifle behind his arms and head.

  “I’m glad that you’re alright dad…have you heard anything from Melvin or Yvonne?” Angie asked with a concerned look on her face.

  “Last I heard Melvin, Allen and Lindsay were holed up at their house up yonder…I don’t know about Yvonne though—she said that she would try and make it here…that was three days ago.” Cedric answered with a distant look.

  “We better go see if they are all right.” I stated as I slung my M16 over my right shoulder.

  “Say—did you guys all walk here?” Cedric asked with a surprised look.

  “Yes—we had an unfortunate accident back in Ringgold that resulted in four of our friends dying; the truck exploded and we’ve been on foot since.” Angie explained.

  “That’s a shame; I’m a little surprised that you all risked that—what with all those damned zombie bastards and whatever else is out there on the loose.” Cedric stated with a shocked expression.

  “Do you have a vehicle we can all use?” I asked as I quickly changed the subject.

  “About all I’ve got is a flatbed wrecker…” Cedric answered pointing to an old dirty looking truck that was parked not ten feet behind him.

  “Does it run?” Noah asked as he and Christina stepped up beside of Angie and me.

  “Yeah—but it’s kinda low on gas.” Cedric answered as he turned to walk toward the wrecker.

  “No problem there; we’ve grown accustomed to stopping at gas stations.” I stated as we all went over to examine the condition of the wrecker.

  “Well then, let me get it around front and then we can get the hell outta dodge!” Cedric stated as he opened the driver’s side door and tossed his rifle onto the seat inside.

  He then started it up and drove it around the back of his shop and brought it out front, then everyone got on the back and a few in the front cab; somehow we broke through the blockade of wrecked vehicles and started in the direction of Angie’s brother’s house. When we arrived there, we seen someone lying on top of the roof; this person was dressed in black jean-shorts, and a black tank top.

  “That must be Melvin…I wonder if he’s okay?” Angie stated in a worried tone.

  Cedric pulled the wrecker up into the yard and everyone got off with their weapons ready, just then—two zombies hobbled out of the front door; the first one was a big guy who was covered with blood and part of his side had been eaten away, the second zombie was what seemed to be an 18 y
ear old girl with purple hair; she was also covered with blood and her clothing hung in tattered rags.

  “Allen?” Angie asked aloud as she stared ahead at the large male zombie.

  “Watch it!” A voice shouted from behind.

  Melvin came flying out of nowhere and sliced his former brother in the chest with one of his prized swords, this only seemed to knock it back a pace and then he and the girl behind him screamed that horrid scream that they all seemed to and started sprinting our way again as we all fell back toward the wrecker.

  “Stupid whore bit Allen!” Melvin shouted as he joined us.

  With that said I raised my M16 and fired several rounds into the purple-headed girl’s head which dropped her ass to the ground, Allen however was still coming; Cedric walked forward and punched him in the noggin knocking him to his back; then he aimed his rifle at Allen’s head and fired blowing it completely off.

  There were a few moments of silence and then Angie broke it by asking Melvin what had happened.

  “Well…we were all here, holed up due to those damn zombies—Lindsay was bitching about Allen’s tattoo and they were going at it pretty fierce—she slugged him across the face and then stormed out the back door, Allen shouted calling her a cunt—then we both heard a scream; Allen—being the big dope he was, ran outside to see what had happened and from that window over there I witnessed Lindsay sinking her teeth into Allen’s side as he was kneeling over her body…I guess she had been attacked and bitten by one of those zombies and turned…but after that, they were both laying on the ground looking dead…I didn’t dare go out there to check, I waited and about four hours later, they both sat up and started pounding on the back door trying to get in. I locked and bolted the doors and windows and got together my weapons but somehow they got inside and started coming for me, but I just ran out the front and climbed up the roof…” Melvin explained as he seemed to be reliving the experience through his actions of telling the tale.