“This bathroom can be used as a last resort—if those fuckers break through the door and the rest of the barricades then you’ll need to flee into this bathroom and try to hold them off; hopefully it won’t come to that though.” I stated as I turned to my sister and the others.
“I’ll stay and guard this room—the rest of you need to go deal with Bowman.” Desiree stated as she held her assault rifle in her arms.
“We’ll stay as well—someone has to look after Xavier and Darc Aiden.” Jennifer stated as she glanced at Sheila.
“Okay…I just hope that you guys will be okay in here.” I stated with a hint of worry in the back of my mind.
“I’ll go with you baby—I’ll protect you.” Chloe stated stepped up to my side.
“I don’t think I’m up to going below either—I make sure nothing breaks in here.” Yuri answered as he held his chest wound with a look of pain.
“I’m staying as well—this wound hurts like a son of a bitch.” Emily added as she sat down in a nearby chair cradling her right arm.
The others of our group who chose to stay and protect the children were my parents and Kaitlynn while the rest of us geared up and prepared to move out.
“Be careful down there baby—come back to us alive.” Jennifer whispered in a low voice as she and Sheila wrapped their arms around me while Remy, Mace and Ember stood close.
“I will—I promise.” I answered kissing the both of them tenderly before picking up Remy hugging her and kissing her forehead before doing the same to Mace, Ember, Xavier and Darc Aiden.
“We’ll keep those things out of this room—you can count on that.” Desiree added as she checked her side arms and her ammo supply.
I handed one of the CB radios that we had been using to Sheila and I led the way out of the bedroom followed by Chloe, Richard, Morgana, Billy, Kayla, Marco, Kira, Beau, Hugo and Amy as the others behind us shut the door tight and moved the obstruction against it; I led the way down the hall to the stairs and then down to the room we had arrived in—glancing around I seen several doors that led off in different directions and I chose to go to the one that was on the north side of the wall. I opened it with some trouble and we were faced with a hallway that stretched several feet north and then turned off to the right, a door could be seen on the left at the end of the hall and when we got to it we found that it was locked tightly with no way to open it—that was when we all suddenly heard gunfire; at first I thought that it was coming from up above were we had left the others but then I realized that it was coming from whatever kind of room was on the other side of the door to our right.
“I wonder who is in there and what they’re shooting at…” Billy stated with a troubled look as he clutched his combat shotgun tightly.
“Only one way to find out.” I answered as I swiftly kicked the door in leading the others inside of the new room which looked like some sort of barracks area.
That’s when dozens of marauders wearing the gas masks and chemical warfare gear turned and noticed us as the others were shooting at several bio-weapons that were tearing around on the other end of the room—we quickly dove behind large obstructions as the marauders opened fire on us; I aimed my M16 at several of the nearby marauders and opened fire sending around six rounds into each of their heads killing them. As we watched and worked to kill off the few other marauders who were shooting at us we could tell that the strange new bio-weapons were quickly killing what was left of them on the far end of the room—these creatures were hunkered down low to the floor and it kind of looked like there were multiple tiny limbs coming out of their abdomens helping them crawl across the floor; they sort of reminded me of insects as a pair of sickening mandibles could be seen extruding out of their mouths and the most notable thing about these creatures were that they were killing the marauders around them with long tentacles with barbs on the ends of them that were sticking out of their backs. The creatures were getting closer to us now as they impaled their barbs into the backs of the marauders who tried to flee toward us and it was then that I knew we would suffer the same fate if we didn’t stop these things here and now—I opened fire on the closest creature sending rounds into the top of its head and back and my bullets actually tore off several of the tentacle things causing the creature to rear up on its hind legs screaming something awful; Billy stepped forward and fired twice with his combat shotgun hitting the thing in the abdomen sending it flying backward onto the floor where it twitched around for a few seconds.
“Aim for the tentacle things on their backs—it’s their weak point!” I shouted as I opened fire again on the other ones approaching us.
We gradually killed them off and then took a look around the room and that was when there was a noise from off to the right near a locker that was halfway turned over onto its side—a young man rose up out from behind it and pointed an Uzi semi-automatic at us with a trembling hand.
“W-Who the hell are you people!” He shouted as his hand shook violently around the weapon.
“Take it easy…we’re not your enemy unless you were here with those marauders.” I answered as I pointed my M16 at him.
“With them?”
“They abducted me from the place where I was hiding and brought me here—they were going to give me to those fucking things but they were attacked by them in the process.” The young man answered as he slowly lowered his weapon.
“That’s believable—who are you anyway?” Billy asked as the others gathered around me.
“My name is Evan Edwards III…I’m from New Jersey…or what was left of it.” The young man answered in kind of an uppity tone.
“I think I remember hearing something about you 11 years back before the world went to hell—you were supposedly the son of some big deal software tycoon.” Beau stated folding his arms across his assault rifle.
“Not supposedly—I was and you’d better respect that!” The young man countered with an angry expression.
“Whatever dude, in case you haven’t noticed—none of that shit means two diddly-fucks these days.” Billy answered with a smug expression.
“How dare you!” The young man shouted as he took a few steps toward Billy starting to raise his weapon again.
“Look out!” Hugo suddenly shouted as one of the same tentacle barbs suddenly pierced through the young man’s chest and ripped him back toward the doorway on the other side of the room as another of the same creatures sank its mandibles into the back of Evan Edwards III’ throat killing him.
We all opened fire again on the creature and soon after killed it before I strolled forward and put a single round in the young man’s forehead.
“Those things were coming from that hallway through that door which has to mean that there’s a nest of them down there somewhere—we better get down there and see what we’re dealing with.” I stated as I shifted my M16 into my left hand and gripped my .357 magnum in my right hand.
Chloe was close to my side and she carried the M32 Hammer that we often used as well as my AR-15 assault rifle as I led the way to the far end of the room and waited as the others clustered behind us.
“Wait just a second—I need to check and see what is behind this door on the north.” Hugo stated as he strolled forward opening it stepping inside for a few seconds before coming back out.
“What was it?” Richard asked in a curious tone.
“Just an empty room—looked like some sort of command post; more than likely it was these marauders’ here who worked in there.” Hugo answered kicking at one of the bloody, mangled bodies as he came up to the rest of us.
I pointed my magnum at the first few bodies pulling the trigger putting rounds in the heads as the others around me done the same, after all of the brains of the dead marauders had been destroyed I turned back to the doorway in front of us with an urgent expression coming to my face.
“Let’s see where this hallway takes us.” I a
nswered as I led the way forward through the doorway and into the long hall that stretched forward and then turned going south.
Once we rounded the corner we seen that there were two doors on both sides of the hallway up ahead and they were labeled ‘Armory’—once we got to them we opened the doors and searched inside of the rooms; there were various weapons and we took what we needed and restocked our ammo supply before going back out into the hallway where it looked like it turned diagonally and then stretched off to the east. A door could be seen in that area of the wall that looked like it was a vault of some sort, I led the way down to it and we all looked it over recognizing the biohazard symbol on the front of the door.
“This says that it’s a virus storage vault.” Beau stated as he picked up a nearby clipboard that had been attached to the wall and looked it over.
“This would be a good opportunity to destroy the viruses inside so that Bowman or anyone else can’t ever use them again.” Amy stated with a determined look.
“We really can’t destroy them yet due to the decontamination process of this facility being activated—we do it now and we might not ever get out of here; we’ll go inside and set an explosive charge to detonate with a detonator when we are ready.” I answered as I turned to the others.
“That sounds like a good plan—let’s go in there and see what all is inside.” Hugo answered as everyone followed me through the electronic door into a small area that was shielded by thick glass and electronic doors.
There were cases with bio-contamination suits and we opened them getting into one each which took us several long minutes due to the way these things had to be zipped up; once everyone was suited up I pressed a button on the side of the wall near the electronic door and it opened allowing us into the main part of the virus storage lab—the cases along the walls were filled with samples of all sorts of deadly strains and seeing how many of them were actually in there made my skin crawl.
“Set the explosives here in the center of the room and then we’ll leave sealing the door on the outside.” I instructed.
Beau and Hugo got to work setting the charges and it only took a few short minutes before they were done and the explosives were armed and the detonator placed inside of Beau’s pack—we didn’t waste any more time there and retreated out of the main part of the virus storage vault going through the system’s decontamination steps before discarding the suits as we went and once we were back out in the hallway, we sealed the door shut locking it. The door across from us had another large biohazard symbol on the door and a metal plate read the words ‘Bio-Weapon Containment Room 1’, and the one down the hall said the same thing except it was the second one—I knew that those creatures had come from one or both of these rooms and that they needed to be destroyed so I led the way through the first door and into a moderately long hall that ended with another door with a warning; we all readied our weapons and opened the door coming into a fairly large room that was covered on one side by secretions that stunk of decay—dozens more of the crawling things came out of the secretions and snarled at us menacingly.
“Get back into the hallway everyone!” I shouted as Chloe stepped up beside of me and opened fire shooting grenade rounds into the room that clattered against the walls and floor getting the creatures’ attention long enough for us to flee back the way we had come.
We were almost back out into the main hall when the explosions rocked the structure behind us—we could hear the screams of the creatures as the room had no doubt been consumed in fire and smoke and I concentrated on getting us back out into the hall and to the next room which once the door had been opened we saw was filled with over a dozen of the hideous Faces creatures that all turned and started toward us; Chloe once again fired several grenade rounds both into the room and into the bodies of the closest creatures and I pulled her back slamming my right fist into the controls beside of the door causing it to shut and running down the hallway the way we had come with the others close behind me. The explosions could be heard again as the Faces creatures inside of that room had no doubt been destroyed and I led the way back to the front room where the stairs to the upper levels were—I took out the CB radio that I had brought along and spoke into it; shortly afterward I heard Sheila’s voice and I was happy to know that they were still alright above.
“What’s been happening baby?” Sheila asked in a concerned tone on the other end.
“All sorts of shit—we ran into a nest of marauders who were fighting some weird new bio-weapon creature that crawls along the floor and we met a survivor who was shortly after killed by the same type of creature and then we explored further into the structure and found a virus storage lab where we set explosives to go off with a detonator signal and then we came across two rooms that were filled with these new bio-weapon creatures as well as one that was full of the Faces creature; the explosions that you guys might have heard was us destroying them with grenade rounds.” I explained as the others gathered around me.
“Wow—I’m glad that you’re all okay; we haven’t had any activity up here since you guys left and everyone is still doing okay.” Sheila answered on the other end with a relieved tone.
“There’s got to be a way to get to the lower levels—stay safe baby and I’ll check in again soon.” I answered speaking into the CB receiver.
“You too babe, all of you.” Sheila answered on the other end.
Over the next several minutes we checked the other two doors on the south and east side of the entrance hall and found that they both led to laboratories that looked to have equipment capable to creating viruses, we set charges inside of those two rooms as well as set them up to detonate on separate remote signals and then we found two elevators in the hallway through the eastern door and checked them out—the doors opened after pressing the buttons and it appeared as though we had found our way down; we all got into one of the elevators and descended down to the first sublevel and waited as the doors opened revealing a long stretch of hallway that went off to both our right and left. To our left was another electronic door that had the same biohazard symbol on it and the plate on the door read ‘Biological Super-Weapon Development Laboratory’ and I led the way to it shortly after looking down the hallway to the left seeing another electronic door at the end; I pressed the button on the panel beside of the door and it opened with an electric hum and the room we entered looked like it had been recently used—there was a large metal table in the center of the room that had scattered tools on the top of it that were stained red with blood.
“Damn it…this place looks like it was used not but a short time ago—there’s no telling what the hell that asshole has cooked up to throw at us this time.” Kira stated as she looked over the bloody tools on the top of the metal table.
As I looked over the area I caught sight of a piece of material that seemed familiar though I couldn’t place where it could have come from or why it even seemed familiar in my head—I shrugged and turned back to the others.
“Whatever happened in here has already happened—let’s check that other door at the end of the hall outside.” I stated as the others gathered around me with their weapons in hand.
They nodded and I led the way out of the room and through the electronic door that we had used before heading down the long hallway to the next door that was labeled with the same symbol and this time the plate on the door read ‘H.C.C’.
“Something tells me that there’s something of dreadful circumstance beyond this door…” Amy stated as we all looked at each other.
I pressed the button on the side panel and the door slid open revealing a large, white room that had some sort of containment structure in the center that was shaped like a pyramid—a huge biohazard symbol was on the floor in front of the pyramid structure and this looked all too familiar to what I remembered the containment area that the original Entity had been inside had looked like; that was when our gazes went up t
o a closed in area that was overlooking the room—my eyes locked on the form of a broad-shouldered man who was wearing a black suit jacket over what appeared to be a white shirt and his face was cold and uncaring.
“It’s him—you sorry motherfucker, you’ll pay for what you have done!” Beau shouted as he raised his assault rifle and opened fire on the man who was standing behind the glass barrier looking down on us.
To our shock and dismay the bullets bounced off the glass as the man got an amused look on his face.
“So you’re Nicolas Bowman huh…tell us why you done what you done to the world!” I shouted as I stepped forward followed by Chloe and the others.
“I don’t answer to the likes of a lowly worm like you—look around you—what I have created is a new paradise of undeath; there are no more street gangs, no more petty thieves or corrupt politicians—no more pointless UN meetings where ignorant delegates sit around and decide what’s right for the rest of the world—they are all gone!” The man shouted in a loud maniacal tone as he rose his arms up over his head.
“That may be so, but it still doesn’t answer as to why you done what you done!” I shouted angrily as the man stared hatefully down at us.
“Because they took her away from me—I heard all about the incident from one of the wretches who took part in it; she was burned alive, screaming in terrible agony for over two minutes before they put a bullet in her head!” Bowman screamed with an expression of both pain and animal rage.
“What are you talking about?” I asked in a confused tone as I stepped a few paces closer.
“There were reports of a misdeed that select government officials carried out a few months before the original outbreak—according to what was released by the media a young woman by the name of Laura Cobb was arrested, detained, tortured and then brutally murdered in an attempt to gain information regarding his whereabouts.” Hugo answered stepping up beside of Chloe and me.
“I take it that your team—Covenant One—knew something about this, it would explain why Atkins was sent along with the rest of you to infiltrate the Oklahoma City hospital.” I stated turning to face him and Amy.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 52