“Did you see anyone here die in your dream?” Remy asked with a concerned tone as she glanced at me.
“A few people were moderately injured but there weren’t any fatalities that I recall seeing in the dream—but it showed us doing what we done for so long in the past, having to flee from this place and search for another safe haven out on the open road.” I answered as I sipped on my coffee.
“It’s just as well…I know that might sound like I want it to happen and us to be forced back into the life of constantly running but I just know that sooner or later all good things must come to an end.” My dad stated as he stared off into space.
“I understand the point you’re making and I have to say that I think it’s great that we were able to return here and live in relative peace and safety now for the better part of four years but I always knew that the day would come when this place would be lost and we’d be forced to return to our ‘road warrior’ days.” I stated as I got to my feet and walked a few paces out into the yard.
“Hopefully it was just a dream though—we need to defend this place at all costs.” Beau stated with a troubled look.
“Agreed—we need to get that tower rebuilt and strengthen the walls around this area; in order to make those repairs we’re going to need to go out on another supply run and either bring back more cement and cinderblocks or something else.” I stated as I took a few steps toward the well house gazing across the field and driveway at the ruins of the front gate watch tower that we had blocked off.
I could see dead-heads and other mutations starting to gather and the wind was picking up out of the southwest—I looked back at the sky in that direction and it looked like a storm was rolling in; with a sigh I walked back over to the rest of the group meeting the loving embraces of my women.
“We’re going to need to go out and get the materials—the sooner the better; with this storm rolling in we need to move before it gets too bad.” I stated as I met each of the others’ gazes.
They agreed that we needed to go ahead and go gather the materials to fix the front gate watch tower as well as the areas of the wall that had been damaged in the attack and the Covenant One team stepped up and offered to take care of the gathering operation—they gathered into the M1134 Stryker and soon after departed leaving the rest of us to look after them; I watched as they used the heavy machine guns on the top of the APC to destroy the mob of dead-heads and other mutations that were gathering at the barrier that we had created and once they had been killed they drove the M1134 Stryker out of the gate as Marco, Richard and I rushed to close and lock the gate. Garry brought up the hummer and parked it where the APC had been to reinforce the barricade and we returned to the yard in front of the main house and waited—it’s all we could do knowing that we didn’t have the resources to all go out with Hugo, Beau, Amy, Desiree, Billy, Kayla and the few others of the Covenant One team who had went along; we waited and it seemed like hours had passed and the storm had hit us—rain poured down and the wind blew through the trees. To make things worse it was getting dark and the generators that powered our buildings and sleeping quarters were starting to sputter and die, I ran outside into the rain and into the small shed where the generator was that powered our house and I checked on the condition of the machinery—it was nearly out of fuel and I let out a loud groan as I checked the nearby gas canister and found that it was almost empty.
“Fuck…we’re going to have to go out for more gas…of all the times for this shit to happen.” I stated to myself in an annoyed tone as I turned and headed back out into the pouring rain.
I got back inside of the house and seen that the rest of the group who had stayed there had gathered into the living room of the house and they were lighting camping lanterns and candles as the electricity had already dwindled down to a dimmed hue—seconds later it went out altogether and I used my LED flashlight to help Jennifer and Sheila look for more candles as Chloe and April worked to build a fire in the nearby fireplace; that was when we were all alerted by an explosion that sounded from somewhere toward the front gate. I dashed to the window straining to see and all I could see beside rain was fire and smoke that was billowing out from the trees near the area where we had parked the hummer—movement caught my eye and that was when I saw them, hundreds of zombies and other mutations were surging into the field a few hundred yards from the well house and they were headed straight for our house.
“Shit—we’ve got incoming!” I shouted as I frantically grabbed at the metal cord to the steel shutters that we had set up on the downstairs windows a few years before pulling them to come down.
Once I had pulled the first few down and put padlocks on them I locked the front door and then the back door as everyone grabbed their weapons and huddled together frantically, the undead horde hit the outside of the house and we could all hear the horrible screams of the creatures that we had grown accustomed to over the years—they were banging at the outside of the steel shutters and I knew that we were safe for now but we would be in a world of hurt if one of the larger more powerful abominations attacked the outside of the house; I couldn’t help wondering what had caused the explosion over near the hummer and that was when we all heard breaking windows upstairs. I grabbed my M16 and dashed up the nearby stairs as fast as I could and I was about halfway up when the shadow of a mutation I had never seen before caught my eye—it was a massive scorpion that looked to have been genetically enhanced through viral experimentation and it was coming straight at me; I shifted my assault rifle into my left hand and drew my .357 magnum from the holster at my right side and pointed it at the oncoming overgrown arachnid pulling the trigger multiple times. The powerful bullets tore into the eyes and upper carapace of the creature spewing foul-smelling black blood and the creature reared back in anger and struck the side of the upper wall with its stinger at the end of its tail; Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and April came to my side and pointed their weapons at the creature and opened fire—we were slowly able to force it back out the large hole in the wall where the window had been that it had broken through and once it was outside on the top of the carport Chloe tossed me the M32 grenade launcher and I fired a round into the underbelly of the creature that blew its body to pieces sending what was left over the edge onto the ground below.
“There are more of them coming out of the woods over there!” Jennifer shouted as she strained to see through the rain that was now coming down in sheets.
Thunder shook the house around us and lightening streaked across the sky—I could see the dark shapes of the arachnid creatures as well as zombies and other mutations and I found myself wondering how they had breached the wall from the western side, that was all woods back there so I thought.
“Shit—here they come!” I shouted as I pointed the grenade launcher down at a mass of the creatures and opened fire sending several grenade rounds down into the flank of the creatures which caused a good sized explosion that sent dirt, fire, smoke and pieces of both the creatures as well as bits from the zombies and other mutations into the air.
I knew that we weren’t going to hold out for much longer and that was when the rest of the group from downstairs appeared in the room behind us and I glanced back and seen Marco and Regan struggling with the upstairs landing door as decaying hands were pushing on them from the other side—I knew right then and there that the downstairs level of the house had been breached and was now overrun by the dead-heads.
“Fuck me sideways with a railroad spike!”
“What the hell are we going to do now?!” Garry shouted as he grabbed a nearby 2x4 and used it to brace the door.
“That’s a colorful expression…” Regan stated as she turned to glance at him for a few seconds.
“Holy shit—watch out!” I shouted as I suddenly caught movement out of the corner of my left eye.
That was when a jumper zombie came flying through the same hole that the arachnid scorpion creatu
res had made in the wall and sank its broken teeth into the back of Kaitlynn’ neck causing her to scream as she tried to thrash around, blood was spraying everywhere from out of her severed spinal column and she collapsed on the floor in front of us dead as the jumper zombie tore her flesh from her body eating it with the sickening sound of its rotted jaws clacking together; I quickly aimed my magnum at its head and fired blowing blood and brains out of the back of its head as it slumped back on the floor motionless. I glanced down at Kaitlynn’ body noticing that it was still convulsing from the trauma and I pointed my magnum at her head and fired once putting a bullet through her brain.
“Damn it all…we’re sitting ducks in here…this may be the end everyone…” I stated as I took my women and my kids into my arms as everyone backed up into a nearby corner with defeated looks on their faces.
That was when I heard something else over the roar of the rain and the booming thunder above the roof of the house—it sounded like stomping feet of something massive and several thoughts crossed my mind as we all listened to the sounds; it sounded like it was coming from outside at first and then something powerful struck the outside of the front door, it shook the entire structure of the house around us and then we heard the booming footsteps enter the downstairs of the house below us and I frantically got to my feet and gripped my weapons tightly.
“It’s a fucking dozer…has to be…” Morgana stated as she and Jamie stood with their assault rifles pointed toward the braced door to the stairs not but five feet away from us.
“If it’s a dozer then it’ll bring this whole upper level down and us with it—we need to get to the roof!” I shouted as I stepped over the body of Kaitlynn and went over to the hole in the wall looking out on the roof of the carport.
That was when the stairs outside of the braced door creaked and then seconds later something powerful struck the outside of the door causing the nails in the hinges to start to come out of the wood—I knew that we had less than a minute to get out of there before whatever was on the other side of that door busted its way through; I hustled everyone out onto the carport and then we used the metal ladder to climb up onto the roof of the house. A loud crash caused us to look back down at the hole that we had come through and I knew that we had to get as far away from that spot as we could—the roof was slick and treacherous as the rain was still pummeling down on us drenching us to the skin; that was when the roof not but a few feet in front of us in the direction we were trying to crawl to burst open and a massive figure emerged from the hole in the roof from below. It stood around nine feet tall and its body was covered with a hard substance that looked almost like tampered steel—the red glowing eyes were what caught my attention and right then I knew who this figure was—it was Darkbourne; I pointed my magnum at his head and fired but to my shock and dismay the bullet struck the side of his head and ricocheted off causing a few sparks to fly from the spot it had hit. The others opened fire on him as well as we were now backing up toward the front of the roof, each bullet that hit Darkbourne either bounced off or was destroyed on impact and we were running out of space to move as he was now slowly approaching us—that was when I saw headlights off to my right and I saw the M1134 Stryker race down the driveway toward us and I breathed a sigh of relief; several of the Covenant One members raced out of the back of the APC and opened fire on the dead-heads and other mutations that were around in the yard and they shouted up at us to jump.
“Hit that son of a bitch!” Hugo shouted as he glanced at Billy who was inside of the top machine gun torrent.
Billy opened fire on Darkbourne who now seemed a little distracted by the powerful M60 machine gun but after several seconds he seen that the bullets were doing little more than annoying Darkbourne as he suddenly leapt down to the ground and charged at the vehicle—Desiree seen him coming straight at her and jumped up through the air skillfully evading his attack, I seen her drive the point of what looked like a cattle prod into the back of his neck and we watched in awe as Darkbourne’ body was covered with blue electrical bolts as Desiree landed on her feet; I could tell that her attack had done some damage to Darkbourne as he collapsed onto one of his knees and appeared to be stunned. I wasted little time jumping to the ground landing on my feet, I turned and waited until Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and April had jumped down as well and I was able to catch each of them and then the rest of the group done the same as Hugo directed the rest of the Covenant One members to the nearby storage building where they gathered the ammo and weapons we recently acquired loading it all into the APC—we all followed and got inside of the M1134 Stryker and Beau who was driving sped away from the main house and Darkbourne crashing through what was left of the front gate as we went; Desiree climbed up into the gunners seat above and opened fire on something behind us all of a sudden and I ran to the rear door pressing the button on the side of the wall for it to open most of the way and I looked with disbelief as Darkbourne chased after us. He was only a few yards behind us and closing fast—Desiree’ hail of bullets weren’t effecting him as he continued to surge toward us and it was when he was right at that back of our vehicle that I hit the button for the door to close but when it had closed almost completely Darkbourne wedged his clawed fingers into the door and he was forcing it open again; Desiree climbed out of the gunner’s seat tearing the M60 machine gun from the mount and dashing across the top of our vehicle where she opened fire on Darkbourne at close range. To our dismay we watched as Darkbourne snatched her from the top of our vehicle and fell backward from the momentum and speed of our vehicle which caused him to lose his grip—his clawed hand ripped into the back of the surface to air rocket pod on the top back of the APC and I watched in shock as he ripped one of the rockets from out of the back of the pod and held it next to Desiree as she struggled to free herself; seconds later the rocket exploded creating a huge cloud of fire and smoke.
“Shit—he got Desiree!” Hugo shouted pounding his fists against the side of the rear doorway in anger.
I stared back into the flames as we got further away from it and I saw a dark shape emerge from the flames and start coming after us again and I knew that the explosion of the rocket had obviously barely effected Darkbourne at all.
“He’s still fucking coming!” I shouted as I grabbed a nearby RPG launcher and pointed it out of the half-destroyed rear door of our vehicle at Darkbourne who was once again gaining on us.
“Get clear!” Hugo shouted as everyone grabbed hold of something before I fired the RPG sending the rocket flying out where it hit and exploded on the upper torso of Darkbourne.
It caused him to falter slightly as I could now see that parts of his heavily armored torso had been destroyed and blood and muscle tissue was now exposed.
“Can we swing what’s left of the rocket pod up top around and fire a few rockets at the motherfucker?” I asked as I turned to Hugo and the others.
“We can try—there’s no guarantee that it will do any good though.” Hugo answered with a troubled look as he half turned back to Beau who nodded.
“His armor is breaking—a few more good hits ought to put the asshole down.” I stated as I glanced back at Darkbourne who was still coming after us but at a much more delayed pace.
We all listened as the sounds of the rocket pod whirling around to face the rear could be heard above and Beau focused on driving as Amy locked the rockets on their target and fired—several rockets flew out of the pod above and hit Darkbourne creating a massive explosion that sent out a shockwave that lifted the rear end of our vehicle up off the roadway for a few seconds; once we had gotten far enough away I looked back but I didn’t see any signs of Darkbourne and I turned toward to others with a relieved look on my face.
“I think that put the dickhead down for good.” I stated with a smile as I brought my women and kids into my arms.
“Let’s hope so…I don’t know what else we can do to him if he comes back at us again—this thing i
s severely damaged; that blast must have broken one of the rear axles because all you can hear is grinding metal.” Beau stated from the driver’s compartment in front of us.
“Where are we going to go, dad?” Xavier asked as he and my other kids gathered around me and my women.
“I’m not sure, son…I was thinking that we may need to seek a location that can be easily fortified and one that has a sublevel to it…” I answered in deep thought as I glanced at Xavier first and then at the rest of the group around us.
“There is a heavily fortified marauder compound in Fort Oglethorpe…the last I had heard before I fled was that it had been overrun by the dead-heads and other mutations; if we could clear those things out it might be a safe location—something just tells me that Darkbourne will be back…and soon.” Amy stated with a look of worry.
“That sounds like a gamble…but we really don’t have any other options at this point—our homestead is gone and with it we’ve lost two more people.” I answered in deep thought.
“Who else was lost?” Hugo asked in a concerned tone as he turned to face me.
“We lost Kaitlynn back at the homestead when those things smashed through the upstairs level of the main house…a jumper zombie attacked her from behind and severed her spinal column from her neck—I was forced to put her down.” I answered as I looked up at him.
“That’s a shame…we’ve lost so many people over the span of this whole mess…Noah, Christina, Jude…so many others.” Amy stated as a tear rolled down her face.
I looked away remembering how Noah had been—he had been one of my best friends and I had often wondered what he would have thought of the way things had turned out these past few years, I had to put the thought out of my mind for I knew that at least Noah and his family were at peace; they weren’t having to live like we were—each day that came along wondering whether or not you were going to end up as chow for some zombie or other horrible creature. Everyone else seemed like they were lost in thought as Amy went to the front of the driver’s compartment and directed Beau in the location of the abandoned marauder outpost and after around an hour and a half we arrived there and seen first-hand what the condition of the place was in—zombies and other mutations could be seen and it looked like there were hundreds of bodies here and there around the area that had been marauders before they had been killed; as we got close Billy climbed up into the last remaining run torrent and opened fire on the dead-heads and other mutations that noticed us and started sprinting toward us. The powerful bullets from the mounted M60 machine gun tore them to pieces and it seems like he continued to fire for well over a minute before he finally stopped and climbed down to where the rest of us were waiting.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 63