“No harm will come to them—we’ll ride in the back and help protect them.” Joshua stated as he and Nicole stepped up.
“I’ll drive that modified RV—I’ll take Morgana, Kari, Kira and Madison.” Richard stated as he turned to Billy and Kayla who both nodded.
“There’s also a Ford Bronco over there that we made some modifications on—it’s now an automatic transmission and it should have enough room for supplies, ammo and weapons for whoever wants to drive it.” Beau stated pointing to a large Ford Bronco nearby that had large, jacked up tires.
The back roof had been cut away and there was an area where the people inside could stand up and shoot if needed, flood lights were on the row bar and gas cans were strapped to the very back gate.
“I’ll drive the Bronco…I’ve been thinking that the Mustang may be too crowded after all.” I stated as I stepped over to look it over.
Minutes later my women and I loaded our things into the Bronco and it seemed good to know that we would have ample space to keep our weapons and supplies as well as to ride comfortably—Rachel and Ivana agreed to ride in the back area and be our gunners if the need arose, there was a heavy tarp that Hugo and the others had attached to the open area of the roof that could be pulled over to keep bad weather out as well as offer us more protection; the others chose the vehicles that they were taking as time passed and soon everyone was ready to depart from the building where we had been for the past several hours. My parents, sister and niece were all riding in the Zetros with Hugo, Amy and Beau—Jake and Kenyia were taking the black, armored pickup truck, Clancy and LaDonna were taking the Subaru while Marco and Regan decided to take the Mustang; Seth, Jamie and Lauren took the other modified armored car and Thomas and Yuri chose the armored car that had the rear open gunner’s seat.
“We’ll probably run across other survivors along the way…at least I hope so—we’ll figure out different riding arrangements as the need arises; let’s get going—we don’t know what lies ahead and we need to be very careful.” I stated as I climbed into the driver’s seat of the Bronco.
My women joined me and I waited as Hugo and Beau opened the rear garage doors and then I led the way out into the open lot passing the dump truck that we had used for so long before with the others in our convoy close behind—it was raining and the thunder shook the ground and everything around us as we left the outskirts of Knoxville headed for the interstate; Ivana and Rachel closed the tarp over the back of our Bronco and settled down into a light conversation with Chloe and Olivia who were in the second row of seats as Jennifer and Sheila were up next to me. I glanced back in my rear-view mirror as I could hear the engine of the dune buggy that Billy was driving—they had welded steel plating over the sides creating hatches that could be opened and locked as well as over the front and the back; the lights on the top illuminated the road as my own lights shown through the storm brightly—the others were close behind Billy, Kayla and Garry.
“What’s our route?” Hugo asked as his voice boomed over the CB radio that had been installed in our Bronco as well as in the other vehicles.
“I figure that the next place we’ll pass through is Cincinnati, Ohio…we need to try and avoid the major cities if possible, though—as long as we only have to skim along the outskirts, we shouldn’t attract too many of those fuckers.” I answered as I grabbed the microphone speaking into it.
“I just hope that we can make it to our destination without too much trouble—those damned things are everywhere it seems and from what we saw the other day it seems like their numbers are increasing.” Beau stated on his end.
I continued driving and before too long the rain had mostly stopped but the roads were wet and I had to reduce my speed as to not lose control—we were passing through various small towns along the way as the morning sun was starting to rise in the east and I glanced over at Jennifer and Sheila noticing that they had drifted off to sleep; Chloe and Rachel were still awake and watching the scenery that passed but Ivana had fallen asleep as well.
“It’s hard to believe that after everything that we did back a few years ago to try and end this shit that we’re now pretty much back in the same boat—forced to leave what we were hoping for behind and take to the road once again…” Chloe stated as she leaned forward and rested her chin on my right shoulder.
“I know babe…it’s hard on me too knowing that everything we did to try and rid the world of Bowman and Darkbourne was pretty much for nothing.” I answered as I glanced at her in the rear-view mirror.
“What that asshole Bowman done has left the world in a state that it may never recover from—instead of their numbers declining like we were hoping for, they are increasing and who knows if this place we’re going to will even still be there by the time we get up there…” Jennifer stated as she sat up yawning nearby.
“Oh shit…” I stated as I sped up looking ahead at what was no doubt an old gas station.
I could see swarms of the dead-heads and several of the Faces creatures piled against the outside of the building meaning that there was someone in there that they were after—I quickly pulled our Bronco up on the side of the road grabbing my M16 and other weapons as my women done the same; the others behind us were pulling to the side of the road as well as they could no doubt see the situation ahead. I aimed my assault rifle at the first group of dead-heads that turned and seen us and I opened fire sending a hail of bullets into their heads sending blackish blood and pieces of sickly, white brains into the air as the rest of the creatures screamed the horrible screams that we had grown so accustomed to hearing and started sprinting toward us—Remy and Mace stepped up beside of Jennifer and Sheila and added to the firing line as the rest of our group done the same and the creatures were slowly picked off, that is the regular dead-heads. The Faces creatures were now steadily advancing toward us and our bullets weren’t having an effect on them really—I thought back on when I had saved Chloe the day we had met and I pulled out my M32 grenade launcher and I aimed at the first two creatures firing; the rounds hit them exploding sending pieces of their bodies in all directions and that was when I locked eyes with a pretty young woman who appeared on the roof of the gas station above us—she aimed an M4 assault rifle at the creatures and opened fire on them causing them to become distracted as I once again fired grenade rounds at the ones that were left destroying them. After the smoke had cleared the woman came down and met us outside of the gas station and her attention focused on me and I was astonished at how beautiful she was—her hair was long and black with portions of it dyed a blood-red color, even though parts of her face were smeared with dirt and grime, I could still see the gothic makeup that she wore and the piercings that she had; she was wearing a stained white spaghetti-strap shirt and a pair of ragged cut-off shorts that were daisy dukes and she had various tattoos on her arms, shoulders and thighs and her eyes were a deep blue color.
“Thanks for your timely aid…I don’t know how much longer I could have kept those things out of this place.” She stated looking up into my eyes as she spoke.
“It was no problem—we seen all of those fuckers piled against the outside of this building and figured that there was someone in trouble.” I answered smiling.
“How long have you been hiding in this place?” Hugo asked stepping forward as the others of the group done the same.
“Since the beginning almost…damn…has it been that long?”
“I had others that I was surviving with at one point but many of them left or died from bites and scratches from those things…I can’t even begin to tell you how many people I have witnessed who had to be put down or else they would have turned…” The young woman stated in a melancholy tone.
“We’ve lost a lot of people ourselves…friends, family…we’ve been fighting this thing since the start ourselves and originally it was all about finding the man who was responsible and making him answer for his crimes after
that it became all about surviving.” I stated folding my arms across my chest.
“My name is Roxanne Wagner…pleased to meet you guys.” The young woman answered smiling at me especially.
“My name is Chaz Watkins—these are my women—Jennifer, Sheila, Chloe, Olivia, Rachel and Ivana; the others behind us are our friends and family members.” I introduced as each one of the others personally introduced themselves to her.
Jennifer nudged me as we were heading back to the Bronco and I turned to see that Roxanne had followed us and it looked like she was curious to our setup—she had gathered her weapon and gear from inside of the old store and it was plain to see that she intended to come with us.
“You’re really cute…I hope that I’m not intruding.” Roxanne stated staring up into my eyes as she spoke.
“Not at all—you’re welcome to ride with us if you want.” I answered as I opened the left side rear passenger door for her and my other girls.
She smiled and climbed inside and she was sitting beside of Rachel, Chloe and Ivanna—I could tell that there was a strong attraction forming between myself and Roxanne and I glanced at Jennifer and Sheila and they both smiled and nodded; I started our Bronco and led the way back out into the road as the others in the vehicles behind us followed and as the hours passed it started getting toward noon—the sky opened up again and it started pouring down rain.
“I have the feeling that we’re going to see a lot of this the further north we go…the weather patterns these past few months have been out of whack.” Hugo stated over the CB.
“Yeah…I was thinking the same thing.” Billy stated on his end as the roar of the dune buggy engine could be heard.
I listened to the others chatter back and forth to each other over the CB and my mind was left to wander—it wasn’t until Jennifer and Sheila called my attention to something ahead that my mind was brought back to when and where I was; the road looked to have been washed out by a flash flood.
I stopped the Bronco and got out with my M16 in hand and I strolled over to the edge of the pavement looking down—it was at least fifteen feet to the bottom and the ravine that had been carved out by the flash flood was filled with bodies of dead-heads that screamed their horrible sound as they seen me; most of them looked to be stuck in thick mud and other debris and weren’t an immediate threat. The others came up behind me and looked over the area and the rain above was getting harder and heavier, it was at least twenty feet to the other side of the road and it didn’t look like there was any other way to get around the washed-out road.
“How the hell are we gonna get around this shit?” Billy asked in a skeptical tone.
“I guess we have no other choice but to double back and see if we can’t find an alternate route…what a pain in the ass.” I answered after several moments had passed.
“That’s gonna take time…we better get moving—there’s no telling what we might run into; not to mention that fact that this weather is getting worse…I wouldn’t be surprised if we run into flooding.” Hugo stated with a distant tone as those of us still standing out in the rain were now getting soaked thoroughly.
I got back into the Bronco as the others done the same with their vehicles and I glanced at the road ahead one last time before I put it into reverse and backed away from the edge of the washed-out roadway heading back the way we had come—after around an hour or so we came to what looked like a sturdy bridge across a somewhat wide creek that was quickly swelling with the heavy rain; I knew that we needed to get across the bridge to the other side before the water swelled over the road.
“Let’s get across this bridge—there might not be another way across if we wait…” I stated into the CB as I revved the engine speeding across the bridge.
The others quickly followed and we managed to make it across to the other side of the creek and beyond about a mile before a crack of thunder shook everything inside of our Bronco—lightning flashed across the sky and that was when I saw them, hundreds—maybe thousands of dead-heads and other mutations shambling around on the roadway ahead of us; there were so many of them that I couldn’t see anything else for at least a mile beyond.
“Holy shit—they’ve spotted us, full reverse!” I shouted as Jennifer picked up the CB receiver and yelled at the others behind us to back up.
I managed to turn our Bronco around and that was when I spotted a dirt road stretching into the woods off to my right and I quickly turned and led the way through the thicket of trees with the others in their vehicles behind us; I could hear the horrible screams of the zombies and other mutations as they no doubt took chase after us and I could also hear gunfire—I knew that I had to get us away from that horde as there was no way in hell that we could stand against those numbers.
“Shit—I hope that Billy and Kayla are okay in that dune buggy!” Sheila stated in a worried tone as she strained to see back through the rear tailgate of our Bronco.
That was when Hugo’s voice came on over the CB and I quickly picked up the receiver.
“Chaz—it looks like we’re far enough away from that horde…but we better hope that this dirt road leads somewhere or else we’ll be overrun.” Hugo stated on the other end.
“Is everyone okay back there?” I asked as I glanced at Sheila who I could tell was worried sick about her brother.
“Yeah—there were several jumpers that tried to leap into the big truck that your daughters and the others with them are driving toward the back but luckily they were able to shoot them down.” Hugo answered after several seconds had passed.
“Billy, Kayla and Garry are fine—they were up in front of us and those fuckers didn’t get close to them.” Beau stated after a few seconds.
This news seemed to relieve Sheila as she began to relax in her seat—that was when a dark structure came into view directly ahead and as I got closer and closer to it I could tell that it looked like some kind of power plant; as we pulled our vehicles through an open gate that was attached to a tall chain-linked fence we got a better look at the place and I could tell that it had been a hydroelectric power plant back in the day.
“This might be a good place to hole up for a bit until we can get our bearings—at least for the night…I know that we can’t really stay long with that horde back there so close behind.” I stated as I parked our Bronco getting out to meet the others.
“We passed over a large, wide canal like depression back there—maybe we can destroy the Bridgeway over it to slow those fuckers down…that canal has got to be at least fifteen or twenty feet deep…it won’t stop those numbers but it’d slow them down for a bit.” Beau stated as he came up to stand before me and my women.
“Something tells me that we really shouldn’t be stopping here for any amount of time—we should keep going and see if there is a road that connects to this place and get the hell outta dodge.” Billy stated as he and Kayla nervously glanced back toward the direction we had come from.
We could all hear the sounds of the undead horde and it was no secret that they were getting closer.
“Fuck…we’re gonna have to keep going—maybe we can find a safe place to rest for the night further on; let’s get out of here.” I answered as I got back into the Bronco.
My women done the same and the rest of the group as well as I led the way through the open spaces around the power plant until I found a paved roadway that led away toward what I could tell was a small town—I knew that once we were able to put some distance between us and that horde that we’d be okay; the storm continued around us as the day waned and nightfall approached, by that time we had passed through the small nameless town and moved on along the highway leading northwest and it wasn’t long after that when we crossed the Kentucky state line and according to our map we would pass by the capital of Frankfort without having to actually travel into the city—we would have to pass through Cincinnati though. We soon after found an
onramp to interstate 75 and I glanced at the wreckage and debris that was all over the roadway ahead of us, the way ahead of us seemed free and clear of dead-heads and other mutations for the moment so I floored it and led the way ahead as the others followed close behind; as the hours passed the rain started to let up a bit and it was almost morning as the sun could be seen rising in the eastern sky—that was when I spotted what looked like a car dealership on my right that looked like it had been fortified. As we got closer I could tell that the large glass windows on the sides of the building had been mostly all busted out but thick, heavy plywood had been put up over them on the inside—a sign that someone had definitely been using the place as a shelter at some point in the past.
“Guys—we might be able to rest in there; we should at least stop and check it out.” I stated picking up the CB microphone and speaking into it.
“Not sure how secure it it…we’ll have to check the structure out to make sure that it’s not gonna be another death trap…” Beau answered on his end as I slowed down and brought our Bronco to a stop beside of the structure.
I had no more stopped when a surge of dead-heads and other mutations suddenly plowed through the flimsy plywood barrier over the nearest window and into the side of our convoy—I heard the others shouting and I quickly gunned our engine speeding out into the roadway quickly turning the wheel to the left causing us to spin around to where we were facing the structure and the undead surge.
“Get up top—let’s give them some hell.” I stated as I glanced back at Chloe and Roxanne who were getting their assault rifles ready.
The both of them rose up out of the top of our Bronco and opened fire sending a hail of bullets into the flank of dead-heads getting their attention; the others looked like they were okay for the most part and many of the others including my kids were all shooting, they were standing in the back of their big truck in a defensive line formation gunning down the numbers and it wasn’t but a few moments when all of the regular zombies were all splattered on the pavement around our convoy. There had been a few jumpers in the group that had attacked us but luckily nothing worse than that and they had been quickly dealt with—I got out and walked over to make sure the others were okay and my women stood by the Bronco waiting.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 71