“Are you sure that we can trust these new people babe?” Chloe asked with a worried expression.
“I hope so…these seem genuine and more bodies around this place to help defend it against those dead-heads and other mutations as well as enemy attacks will help.” I answered as I took each of my women into my arms and kissed them reassuringly.
We ended up falling asleep in our usual entanglement and sometime later that day I was woken by Beau’s voice on the intercom.
“Chaz—sorry to disturb you guys but you really should get down here to the sublevels…North Laboratory Block D.”
I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as I rose out of bed with Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and April rising as well.
“I thought that area was sealed off…” Sheila stated suddenly.
“It was…I wonder what is going on now—seems we can’t get any rest around here without something happening.” I answered as I got to my feet and got my clothes and gear ready.
“Do you need us to come with you?” Chloe asked as she and the others started to get up.
“Nah, stay here and look after the babies—I’ll go see what this is all about.” I answered as I kissed each of them before grabbing my weapons and heading out the door.
I walked down the hallway toward the northern stairwell that led to the sublevels and that was when Olivia came out of one of the nearby rooms and she stopped smiling as she seen me approaching.
“Hi Chaz—can I talk to you?” She asked as she came to stand before me.
“Can it wait?”
“Beau called me down to the sublevels to investigate something.” I answered as I walked past her.
“Okay—I’ll be waiting.” She answered back.
Had I been looking back at her I would have seen her biting on her right index fingernail and watching me walk away with a look of lust in her eyes; I opened the door at the end of the hallway and descended down to the sublevels where I met up with Beau, Richard, Morgana, Jaime and Amy.
“What’s going on?” I asked as I met them with something of an annoyed expression.
“Well—not but twenty minutes ago we all heard a deafening rumble from the North Laboratory Block D down here; it sounded like something crashed through a wall or something.” Beau explained as he motioned to the sealed electronic door that read ‘North Laboratory Block D’ on the front of it.
“Any idea what could be behind this door?” I asked with a hint of worry in my voice as I glanced around at the others.
“It was electronically locked when we cleared the dead-heads and other mutations out of here several months ago—as far as what is behind the door I couldn’t tell you.” Beau answered as he glanced at the door with a concerned look.
“I don’t like this…there could be just about anything on the other side of that door…” Richard stated as he gripped his assault rifle tightly.
“Clancy said that his group came through the eastern tunnel and the utility room—he said that all of the other doors were sealed.” Beau stated as he motioned to the door behind us on the left near the door to the stairwell.
“We better get some of the others down here to watch our backs—we’re going to have to get through this door somehow.” I stated as I walked over to the control panel of the door and pressed a few buttons.
Seconds later there was a bleeping sound and a red light flashed on the panel—I turned back to the others with the notion in mind that my attempt to open the door had failed; I stepped back with a frustrated look on my face as I looked at the control panel of the sealed door as well as at the edges of the doorframe around it.
“Have you checked to see where the northern stairwell comes out down here?” I asked as I glanced back at Beau briefly.
“Yeah—we checked it this morning, the whole lower level in that area is collapsed underneath at least a ton of debris and rock…from the look of it my guess is that when those dead-heads and other mutations got in here and started killing those marauders one of them must have used a grenade or something to try and seal the northern stairwell shut.” Beau answered folding his arms.
“I guess that would explain the structural damage in that northern hallway when we first got here…” I answered as my glance went back to the sealed door in front of me.
“Yep—there are even traces of damage in the armory, luckily not enough to hurt.” Beau added as he came over to the door beside of me.
“I say that we leave this door alone for the time being—if there is anything behind it then it’s contained and can no more get to us than we can to it.” Richard stated after a few seconds of silence had passed.
“Yeah…that’s true—we need to keep track of these doors though, because if it’s some sort of bio-weapon down here then you can bet your ass that this door won’t keep it in there forever.” I answered in deep thought as I turned to the others who were now arriving in the hallway with us.
“We’ll monitor this area closely and if necessary seal the stairwell with explosives the same way the northern one was.” Hugo stated as he came up to us.
“We need to avoid doing that at all costs—the boiler room and the generators inside of the utility room are what power the computers in the lab above as well as the security equipment in the control room.” Amy stated suddenly as our attention was drawn to the two nearby doors that were labeled ‘Boiler Room’ and ‘Utility Room’.
“Let’s hope that these electronic doors will hold then…” Hugo answered as his glance went back to the sealed doors behind us.
I led the way back up and everyone went about their business and shortly afterward I was approached by Olivia again and I decided that I would hear what she had to say although I kind of already had an idea on what this was going to be about—I went into the kitchen and started making a pot of fresh coffee with what we had managed to bring with us from when our homestead had been destroyed.
“This is going to sound bold…but I was just wondering if you have noticed me as much as I have you?” She asked as she came to stand beside of me at the counter where I was working.
“I’ve noticed you, yes…” I answered as I put the coffee pot beneath the spout of the water cooler before pressing the valve upward allowing the water to start gushing out into the coffee pot in my left hand.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you—I’ve been fantasizing about you fucking me in the shower…” Olivia continued.
It was at that moment that she grabbed me and started kissing me—I could feel her tongue in my mouth and her sucking on my lower lip and I quickly but gently pushed her off of me stepping back before turning back to the coffee maker.
“What’s the matter?”
“Don’t you like me…or have I made a serious ass of myself?” Olivia asked in a concerned tone as she stepped closer to me again.
“You’re very beautiful and sexy but I have several women already whom I love dearly and have been with for a long time…you’d have to be willing to share my attention and affections with them…” I answered shying away from her touch.
“I’d be willing—the moment I saw you I wanted to be with you.” Olivia quickly stated as she reached over and touched my left shoulder.
“You say that now but you’d have to get to know me—something that hasn’t happened yet.” I answered as I turned to stare down into her eyes.
“I know and I’m sorry…it’s just that I haven’t had anyone to care if I lived or died in so long—I saw you the other day and you made my heart go aflutter…but I won’t bother you anymore if you don’t want me to.” Olivia stated as she turned away looking to be crying.
“Look—I don’t not like you, with us not really knowing each other that well and everything that is going on I just think that it wouldn’t be a good idea right now.” I answered as I finished with the coffee maker turning it on to brew before tak
ing a few steps toward her.
“I get it…I’m sorry that I latched onto you the way that I did…I’m gonna go now.” Olivia answered as she turned and left the room.
I sighed before turning and rummaging in the nearby large bag that we had stashed food goods inside of from fleeing the homestead earlier, I found several cans of beans and golden corn and I started preparing some food for dinner; that was when Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe and April came into the room and greeted me with kisses and they started helping me prepare food.
“What’s wrong baby?”
“You seem troubled about something…” Jennifer stated as she noticed my expression.
I explained to them the news that I had learned about Olivia’s little crush on me and what had happened when I had rejected her and when I was done my women wrapped their arms around me comfortingly.
“You could have taken her in and it wouldn’t have mattered to us, but I can understand the point you were making to her.” Sheila stated as she kissed the left side of my face.
“That’s right—one more wouldn’t have mattered any; we all know that you love us and that you have the capacity to love more.” Chloe added as she wrapped her arms around me.
“We’ll see how things go, should you decide to give her a chance with us then that’s your choice—just don’t feel pressured to do something you might not want to do.” Jennifer stated smiling as April nodded in agreement at what the others had said.
Their council made me feel better and we had soon after finished making a medium sized dinner that consisted of several different kinds of beans, corn, several other vegetables and a small amount of canned meat; we took the food into the mess hall and sat places for the others as our kids came in along with Madison and we waited as the others of our group followed. I noticed Olivia come into the room and sit next to the others whom she had come with and I noticed that she would glanced at me every now and then and I smiled at her which seemed to cause her to cheer up a bit—we had started eating and it was about five or seven minutes into the conversation that I was listening to between Beau and the other Covenant One members as well as Clancy and a few others when Amy came running into the mess hall with an urgent expression on her face.
“What’s the matter?” I asked as I immediately noticed the look on her face.
“I stumbled upon an encrypted file on the main computer that I think you guys should see.” She answered with a grave expression.
I got to my feet and followed after her as my women, kids and others followed and we arrived in the laboratory where Amy had been working nonstop now for many months to create the cure to the Redeemer Strain and that was when I fixed my gaze on the large computer screen in front of us that had a video file that looked to had been hacked into.
“Is this what you are talking about?” Billy asked as he and Kayla gazed upon the file.
“Yes—I was able to hack into it and disable the encryption…” Amy answered as she typed on the nearby keyboard for a few seconds.
That was when the file was displayed and we all watched as an image of what looked like marauder scientists and bioengineers came up on the monitor—they were wearing gas masks and we couldn’t see their faces but they were working on something that was inside of a containment chamber in front of them; they were speaking what sounded like Russian because Yuri immediately perked up and stepped to the front of the group.
“They speak Russian…no doubt about it—let me see if I can get the computer to translate.” He stated as he strolled up to the keyboard beside of Amy and started pressing keys.
Moments later the difficult speech on the video changed and was replaced by crude English as the computer was no doubt having trouble with the translation.
“Darkbourne has ordered us to continue with the project—it seems that things go as planned and the rockets have begun to be prepped with the airborne version of the Redeemer Strain as we speak and will be launched into the Earth’s atmosphere one by one; the hour of our victory is at hand.” The first masked scientist stated as he glanced at the other two who were on the monitor helping him.
“Good to hear—what does he plan to do about those wretches hiding out at that walled fortress south of Lafayette?” The second one asked in a muffled voice.
“That I am uncertain of as Darkbourne keeps his plans to himself for the most part—all I know that that we have been instructed to complete the work on Project Nephilim as soon as possible.” The first masked scientist answered as the camera momentarily shifted to what was inside of the containment chamber in front of them.
I heard gasps from the others as my own eyes adjusted to the poor lighting on the video image of something that was no doubt another bio-weapon that these assholes had recently created; whatever the creature inside of the chamber was, it sported a large torso that looked like it had been fused together—large limbs that resembled wings sprouted from the sides of the torso and its head was in the top center if the mass. An almost featureless, grotesque face stared at the scientists and it would occasionally screech opening its mouth that was filled with fangs—the other features of the creature were not as noticeable as its horrific face and the wing-like limbs; two humanoid arms protruded out of the abdomen area and reached for the glass of the chamber every now and then and the lower part of the creatures’ body was held up by human legs that were covered with what looked like camouflage pants. The camera shifted back to the scientists and it sounded like they were gleeful—proud of their creation that they were working on.
That was when the alarm sounded in the background and another voice came on over the intercom that shouted one phrase—that the Fort Oglethorpe facility was under attack and that the zombies and other mutations had broken through the defenses and were now inside of the compound; we watched as a notice on the bottom of the screen appeared that said ‘uploading data’ until it reached 100% and then the camera dropped out of scientist’s hands and fell to the floor where a breaking sound could be heard as screams of both the scientists and the dead-heads could be heard, seconds later the video shorted out and the footage ended.
“That was apparently here…” Richard stated in deep thought.
“I think that we may have figured out what’s been making those noises down in the sublevels behind those electronically sealed doors.” Hugo stated as he strolled over to the nearby computer and typed several keys bringing up the security monitors around the compound.
I glanced at my women and then at Olivia who stood nearby with her arms crossed—my attention was momentarily diverted when a loud boom of thunder sounded in the sky above our compound; we could all see the rain pummeling the outside of the thick plate-glass windows that were on the upper walls near the ceiling of the laboratory where we all were.
“Damn…rain is really coming down out there.” Marco stated as he stared up at the sky through the windows.
“If this radar is still functioning correctly, it looks like this storm is going to be a really bad one.” Regan stated as she stood near a nearby computer monitor that one of the others had turned on.
“We better get the upper doors on the roof and the ones to the watch towers sealed!” Beau shouted as he rushed off out of the lab followed by Emily.
“He’s right—it’s a wonder that jumper zombies haven’t infiltrated this place already.” Richard answered as he and Morgana took off out of the room after them.
“I’ll take care of the eastern tower—you guys stay here.” I answered as I turned to my women.
“I’ll come with you—you’ll need help with that eastern tower, it’s a bitch to seal off.” April stated as she came to my side.
“We’ll take the kids to our room and wait for you.” Jennifer stated as she and Sheila as well as Chloe gathered our children up and left the lab headed toward our room.
“Let’s get this over with.” I answered as I turned toward Ap
ril checking the ammo supply in both my assault rifle and in my magnum.
We left and headed out of the door to the laboratory and through the eastern door that led to the stairs going up to the roof and the tower above—I made it to the top and noticed that wind and rain as coming in through the open door at the top; April and I fought against the gusting winds and made our way out onto the roof overlooking the outside areas around the compound and I had to shield my eyes as the wind blew dirt and sediments into my face as well as rain that stung my skin.
“I’ll go close the tower gate…” April shouted over the roar of the wind and rain and I waited by the wooden obstruction that we had placed there.
I looked around at the dead-heads and other mutations that were steadily coming toward the compound down on the ground and that was when a jumper zombie suddenly flew up and hit the outside of the razor wire that we had stretched along the walkway to the tower—I drew my magnum and pointed it at the creatures’ head firing; I watched as its body fell to the ground below and then I glanced back at April as she came running from the tower after closing the gate and that was when a loud blast rang out in the roaring wind and rain and right before my eyes I seen a powerful round hit April in the chest and exit out of her back. I ran to her catching her in my arms as a cloud of blood spurted from her mouth and that was when another bullet hit the obstruction just inches away from my head and I ducked out of the way pulling April to safety behind the obstruction—I gripped my magnum and searched the areas around the compound for the shooter and that was when I saw them, it was a marauder commando like the one that had attacked me that night back before our homestead had been destroyed—he held a high powered sniper rifle in his arms and he was pointing it toward me searching for his next opportunity to fire. I carefully crawled around to the northern side of the obstruction and rose up pointing my magnum at him long enough to fire a shot of my own that hit him in his head piercing his gas mask and helmet killing him; I didn’t know if there were any more marauders around for all I could think about was April as she lay dying there on the roof in my arms.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 66