[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  “Man—I can’t believe what just happened down there!”

  “We lost half of the group to that damned thing!” Noah stated as he breathed ragged breaths.

  “We have to find this Bowman guy—at all costs, now that we have this antitoxin sample we can maybe find some doctors or somebody to make a cure…” I stated as I gazed down at the small vial of clear liquid in my right hand.

  We all rested a few more minutes and then got up and started off away from the city.

  [Chapter Four: Dawn of Destruction]

  We had climbed out of the drainpipe only hours ago and it had been at least three whole days since we had went inside the Oklahoma City hospital and it had been a living nightmare down there.

  “This is supposed to be a cure for the zombie plague?”

  “It just looks like water to me!” Noah exclaimed holding the sample vial up to the light.

  “The color doesn’t matter—it’s what the shit does that counts, and if it can reverse this…whatever it is—plague, disease, Kool-Aid—whatever it is, if it can reverse it, then it’s priceless!” I said taking it from him.

  “Fuck…I hope that monster doesn’t find a way to get up here!” Melvin exclaimed as he gazed at the drainpipe behind him.

  “We’ve lost several of our best people down there—people who were our friends, whatever that damn thing is that broke out of the containment area, it’s after us and we can’t stick around these parts for too long.” Angie stated as she changed Remy and Mace.

  “She’s right—let’s get moving; the farther away from this place we get the better.” I stated reloading my weapons.

  We walked on through the open countryside and as we got farther and farther away from Oklahoma City we started seeing heavy thunderheads building up in the west and the wind was picking up.

  “Looks like we’re gonna be getting soaked soon.” Noah exclaimed holding his hand up to feel a sprinkle.

  “I hope that we can find a safe place to hole up out of the weather, whatever that thing was down in that underground lab it is chasing us—not to mention all the damned zombies that still infest the entire country.” I stated as I led my group in an almost single file line through the tall grassy field toward the edge of the forest ahead.

  Angie followed close behind me with Remy riding in the harness on her back as I carried Mace in the harness on my back—Jennifer was at my left side holding tightly to my hand while everyone else followed single file after her. We were getting deeper and deeper into the woods and the wind was whipping trees back and forth and blowing leaves and dirt into our faces.

  “Chaz!”

  “We have to take shelter somewhere—we can’t take much more of this!” Kira shouted from behind.

  I shielded my face from the wind and looked around, that’s when I suddenly caught a glimpse of what appeared to be some sort of building in the trees a few hundred feet in front of us.

  “Follow me!” I called back waving my arm.

  We pushed forward until we were outside of the front door to whatever kind of building it was, the metal stairs to the walkway were rusted over and when I examined the door I found an old rusted over chain that was fastened through the door where there had once been a doorknob, and back around where it was held together by a fairly new padlock.

  “How the hell are we going to get inside?” Noah asked from behind as he held up the right side of his jacket up to shield his face from the rain.

  “Stand back.” I said as I took out my .357 magnum, cocked it and aimed at the padlock.

  I fired and blew it off the door, and then I took hold of the chain and removed it from the door pushing them open where everyone could enter; we were greeted by darkness and a dank musty smell.

  “Guess there’s no power in this place…I wonder what sort of place it was anyway?” Christina said as she and Noah flicked on their flashlights and glanced around at the interior of the building.

  “Looks like some kind of old factory to me…” Angie answered in a low voice as she held tightly to her magnum.

  I found an old cigarette lighter sitting on a nearby steel barrel and tried it out; it had fluid and seemed to show quite bright. I looked to the north and seen that there was what looked like a sliding metal gate with a door on the right wall a little further down.

  “Let’s check it out down this way, stay close and be ready for anything.” I instructed as I led the way.

  When we got to the sliding metal gate, I pulled it open and we continued down to the door and I checked the doorknob—it opened with some effort revealing what appeared to be an infirmary.

  “Well—this room should be safe for us all to stay in for the night, someone needs to locate the power room and try to get the lights on though before we go to sleep.” I stated as I turned to face my group.

  “I’ll look around.” Noah said taking out his shotgun.

  “I’ll go with him.” Christina added as she turned to follow after him.

  They went through the door on the east side of the room and found a massive generator that could supply power to the entire building if turned on.

  “It appears to have fuel—let’s see if we can power it up baby!” Noah stated in an excited tone.

  So they went to start it and after a few tries, they got it up and running; the lights were very dim but they were on, after that we were able to take a good look at the interior of the place—that’s when we discovered the massive amounts of blood and gore which had been hidden by the darkness before. Many of the walls were literally full of bullet holes and there were pieces of half-eaten to completely devoured corpses here and there.

  “What the hell do you think happened here?” Noah asked as he and Christina came back into the infirmary.

  “Looks like there was an all-out war…the walls are full of bullet holes and the floors are littered with empty shell casings!” Cedric stated as he glanced all around the room and floor area.

  “Whatever happened here obviously killed off all the workers and whoever else was here…that had to of meant that the undead got in here somehow.” I stated with a troubled look.

  “But where the hell are the bodies?”

  “There are no sign of any bodies of zombies or victims anywhere.” Angie stated in confusion.

  “That’s a damn good question…whatever happened here is the past, for right now let’s just stay in this room and get some rest.” I answered as I sat my pack and gear down next to a wooden crate.

  We all settled down in the darkened room in a huddle, Noah and Melvin managed to get a fire going in the middle of the room and it helped warm up the room somewhat as there was a cold, damp wind blowing outside with the rain.

  “What happened with the lights in this room—they’re hardly showing at all, you guys did get the generator running didn’t you?” Kira asked as she glanced up at the florescent light fixture above our heads.

  “Yeah, we did—I think that the lights in this room were damaged in the firefight.” Noah answered as he warmed his hands by the flames.

  Angie, Jennifer and I listened to the others talk for a little longer and then we drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms with Remy and Mace in between us, but sometime late that night I awoke with a start at the sound of something big clattering down what sounded like steel steps; the others were also awakened by this racket and we all struggled to get our gear ready in the dimming fire light.

  “Damn it—I can’t see anything!” Melvin shouted as he fumbled around in the dark.

  There was the sound of ripping cloth and then Noah threw a large piece of his torn t-shirt into the fire, which immediately caused it to flare up illuminating the entire room.

  “That’s better, what the hell do you think caused that noise?” Cedric asked in an alarmed tone as he frantically tried to get his and Sally’s gear together.

&
nbsp; “I hate to think of what it could be…” I answered as I slapped a new clip into my M16.

  “There are footsteps out there…they sound like they are coming this way.” Noah reported as he got well away from the outside door to our room.

  “Did you lock the door?” Christina shouted in a frightened voice.

  “It doesn’t lock!” Noah answered back as he pointed his shotgun ahead at the door with a look of dread.

  “Oh great—just what the doctor ordered—we’re going to need an escape route in case there are too many of whatever is out there.” I shouted as I too aimed my M16 straight at the door.

  The door suddenly flew open and a mass of what looked like somewhere between twenty to thirty zombies crowded through the door; I opened fire with my M16 filling their heads full of lead. Some of them fell to the floor, others got back up.

  “Fall back!” I shouted still shooting as everyone else behind me fled out the other door.

  Noah grabbed a stick from the fire that still had a piece of the burning material from his shirt on it and he used it as a club slamming the burning end of it into one of the zombies’ torsos—this caused it to ignite and sort of fall backward into the others behind it also igniting them in what seemed to be a chain reaction.

  “Ha—welcome to the fucking barbeque you stupid dead-heads!” Noah shouted in a taunting manner as he fell back toward where Christina was waiting with Jude in her arms.

  I led the way out the other door and through the generator room and we arrived in the front room where we had come in and were horrified to see dozens more zombies rushing down the steel stairway from somewhere higher up; Noah turned on the lights for that room and then we opened fire and killed the ones that got in our way as we made a mad dash for the front doors careful not to leave anyone behind. Once everyone was out of the factory, I took out three grenades that I had picked up from before and pulled the pins on them tossing them inside the factory and I ran as fast as I could away from the factory with the others running just ahead of me.

  I hit the dirt with Angie and the others around me as the entire building behind us exploded into a fire cloud, I got to my feet and helped Angie up as well while the others got up and looked around the area as the burning factory just ahead lit up the night.

  “We need a vehicle so we can get to a safe place.” I stated as I slung my M16 over my right shoulder.

  “Look at that!” Noah shouted pointing at the flaming entrance to the factory.

  Zombies were dashing out of the doorway burning steadily screaming like banshees; some fell to the ground and burned until they did not move anymore—others kept coming right for us even though they were like moving torches.

  “This shit is unreal—how are we supposed to kill these things when they just keep getting stronger and stronger!” Christina shouted as she had tears running down her face from the heat of the fire that mixed with other dirt and grim on her face.

  “Let’s just get the hell away from here!” Angie stated as we all fell back in to the woods away from the burning factory and the zombies.

  We walked through the dense woods stumbling over roots and brush for the rest of the night until the early crack of dawn when we had finally arrived in a large vastly overgrown field, we stopped to rest as the morning sun came into the sky and it started to get hot.

  “Damn it, I wish we had something to eat—I’m starved.” Melvin exclaimed as he rummaged through his bag for anything that might remotely be used as food.

  “I know what you mean—we’re going to have to find something to eat and restock our supplies…we should be getting close to a town here pretty soon.” I stated as I sat up in the grass.

  So we picked up and walked in the direction of what we recognized as a road and before long we seen a sign that said “Seward City Limits”. “Seward…we’re in Seward, Oklahoma.” I said as I led the way toward what looked to be a small jerkwater town out in the middle of nowhere.

  No more had we gotten into town when we started noticing wrecked cars and trucks—some smashed into each other, others smashed into buildings, upside down, and there was even an old pickup that had obviously flown off the road and landed in a swimming pool that was now stained a sickening dark red color with what looked like worms and maggots swimming through the stagnant water. Further examination revealed a rotting worm-ridden corpse smashed through the windshield of the pickup.

  “This town looks like it was hit fairly recently—the bodies are still…how shall I put it…juicy…?” Noah stated as he and Christina examined a corpse that was lying almost smashed in the road on the other side as Angie and I were looking over a newspaper that had been lying on the street.

  “That’s sickening—I don’t wanna look at that!” Christina protested as Noah knelt down to search the mangled body.

  “Guys—the date on this paper is only two weeks ago…that means that we might find survivors here.” I stated as I tossed the paper down and readied my M16.

  “It’s kind of odd that this town would have just now been hit when this shit has been going on now for almost five years.” Melvin stated as he stood staring off into the distance.

  “Yeah—but who knows—they could have been pretty well fortified up ‘till now; and if one thing is for certain—you can’t hold them off forever; especially when these undead fucks increase in numbers probably every five minutes.” I answered as I briefly glanced over at him.

  We continued walking until we were all the way into town, there were bodies almost everywhere and we were certain that the zombies couldn’t be too far off.

  “There’s a café…I wonder if there’s anyone in there?” My dad stated as he pointed to a nearby building that had a half busted neon sign on the outside of it that read “EATS”.

  “Noah and I will check it out—the rest of you wait here and stand guard—if you see anything, fire a couple shots.” I instructed as I gave Angie a kiss and then turned to Jennifer kissing her as well before I led the way into the café.

  Noah and I pretty much just stepped through the busted front window and into the café—stools were overturned, tables were broken in half and the small of decay was thick; we pushed past the counter and looked around back there when we noticed what had probably been the clerk lying face down on the floor in a pool of now dry blood—his head was nowhere to be found, the cash register however—had been picked clean.

  “Dude…that’s pretty damn savage, do you suppose someone just killed this guy to get to the cash register?” Noah asked turning toward me.

  “I don’t know—it’s possible, it always seems to happen like this—some major disaster takes place and one of the first things to happen after that is looting; looters hit the stores and anywhere else they can steal stuff from.” I explained as I examined the rest of the room.

  There was a sudden rattle and then a clatter from somewhere behind a wooden door nearby that had order lists taped to it.

  “Who’s there?”

  “Come out now, and come peacefully—you’ve got two high-powered assault rifles aimed your way!” I shouted as I aimed my M16 at the door.

  There was a moment of silence and then the door slowly opened and two men stepped out with their hands in the air, they were both ratty-looking and one of them appeared to be mildly injured.

  “Who are you?” I asked still pointing my M16 at them cautiously.

  “N-Name’s Jimmy Brock…this here’s my buddy Adam Thompson.” The first man answered as he motioned to the guy behind him.

  “You didn’t by any chance kill this guy over here did you?” Noah asked pointing at the headless clerk behind the counter.

  “No sir—we didn’t have nothin’ to do with that, all’s we were doin’ here was hidin’ from those things out there.” Jimmy answered as his gaze went to Noah then back to me.

  “I see…what happened to you?” I ask
ed nodding at Adam.

  “He was injured when one of the cars outside exploded—had a piece of burning steel lodged in his side, I pulled it out the other day.” Jimmy answered with a slight grin that showed his teeth—which were spread too wide; not to mention the fact that several of them were missing.

  “Don’t you know that you could have injured him worse then what he already was?” Noah asked with a scowl.

  “It’s cool buddy—I used to work over at the fire station, I took CPR classes.” Jimmy replied as he once again gave us that hillbilly smile.

  “Never mind that, do you happen to know if there is anyone else alive in this town?” I asked as I stepped a pace toward him with a serious look on my face that immediately made that ridicules grin of his disappear.

  “Uh…I think a couple of fellas who were over at the rec hall ran into the grocery down the street.” Jimmy answered as he scratched his shaved head with a dumbfounded look.

  “Then let’s go—we have friends and family outside waiting for us.” I stated as I turned to walk toward the door.

  “But…what about those things out there?” Jimmy shouted in a hesitant voice.

  “Look—you can come with us and maybe survive, or you can stay here, it’s your choice.” I answered going back outside where Angie and the others were waiting.

  “Did you find anything baby?” Angie asked hugging me.

  “Mostly just the usual torn up gore-fest like all the other places, but there are two survivors.” I answered kissing her as I brought Jennifer into my arms as well.

  “We’ll come with y’all…although we ain’t got no weapons.” Jimmy said emerging from the busted café doors holding his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun.

  After introductions, we all started down the street toward the grocery store; when we got there we found the doors bolted shut, so I took my M16 and fired several rounds through the door and at the locking mechanism which made them swing open afterward. As soon as we stepped inside two men with beer-bellies popped up with wrenches in their hands obviously intending the bludgeon anyone who messed with them.