“Everyone okay?” I asked as I met up with the others of my group.
“Yeah…luckily we didn’t get out of our vehicles too quickly…we’re going to have to be more careful from now on when it comes to stopping.” Hugo answered as the others all joined us in a circle.
“Let’s move on—this place is obviously not what we’re looking for, hopefully there will be a more secure location further on as I know we’re all tired.” I stated as I turned and returned to my women and got back into our Bronco.
After a few more moments we turned our Bronco around and we started forward again with the others close behind—I could tell that the surprise attack back there had really unnerved some of the others and I was just thankful that no one had gotten bitten or scratched; I knew that we had to find somewhere that was going to be secure enough for us to catch a few hours of sleep but after what had just happened I kind of felt responsible for what could have happened. The roadway ahead was empty and the ride quiet, it seemed that what had just happened was on all of our minds and I kept driving keeping my thoughts to myself; as the hours passed we soon passed by the outskirts of Frankfort and we still had not found anything that had remotely looked like it would be safe.
“We’re getting close to the Ohio River and the state line…Cincinnati isn’t too farther.” Beau stated over the CB which kind of brought me out of the distant thoughts I was having as well as my women around me.
“I hope that we can find a safe place to rest—I had forgotten how tiring this traveling was until we were forced back into this way of life again…” Sheila stated with a distant look.
“I know baby—we didn’t have any choice unfortunately; it was either flee and pick back up on the old ways or die.” I stated as I glanced at her in the rear-view mirror.
As we got closer to the Ohio River and the outskirts of the city itself I noticed what looked like an old army base of some sort—it didn’t look very big and seemed like it had only been an outpost back before the world had went to hell; as we got closer I seen that there was a decent looking parameter wall around the complex and it looked like an old school bus had been parked up against part of the wall that seemed weaker than the rest.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Hugo asked on the other end as the CB came to life on our dashboard.
“Yeah—this could be the safest place to rest for a bit…not to mention that fact that there may still be weapons and ammo caches inside that we could certainly use.” I answered as I picked up the receiver speaking into it.
“We’re gonna have to figure out how to open that gate though…looks like this place was used at some point in the past by survivors…I doubt anyone is left in there now though.” Beau stated as we all got out of our vehicles and gathered near the sealed gate.
“We need to keep our eyes peeled while we’re getting this thing open—the slightest sounds will draw those fuckers in like flies to shit…” I stated as we all got into a circle.
The others nodded in agreement and many of them went back to their vehicles to stand guard with their weapons while Hugo, Amy and Beau grabbed a pair of bolt cutters from inside of their vehicle and began working on getting the gate open; within the next few minutes they succeeded and pushed the gate open allowing me to drive our Bronco through first and then the others to follow. Once everyone was inside of the walled complex we gathered our weapons and got out of our vehicles looking around as Hugo and Beau shut the gate back wrapping a new chain around the latch locking it with a padlock to secure it—the inside of the compound was barren and empty, old shell casing littered the ground here and there and many of them were more than half-buried in the dirt and mud.
“Doesn’t look like anyone has been here in a very long time—we still need to watch ourselves though, just because there aren’t any dead-heads out here doesn’t mean that there isn’t any inside of the actual complex.” I stated as I led the way toward the double doors with my M16 in hand.
I turned the knob on the doors and they opened with some trouble and we were greeted by darkness and the smell of mildew—the room ahead of us stretched out into a corridor that looked to lead further in; the room before us was a spacious room that ironically had an old fire ring with a rack that supported a cooking pot.
“These ashes are fresh…that means that someone was here and might still be…” I stated as I knelt down and ran my fingers over the cold ashes that looked as though they had been drowned by water in a rush.
“I hope that whoever is here that they are not troublemakers like those marauders we had so much trouble with in the past.” Jennifer stated as she and my other women gathered close to me.
“We better search this building and make sure that there aren’t any dead-heads or other mutations inside—we’ll keep radio contact.” Hugo stated as he nodded at Amy and Beau.
“Okay—be careful.” I answered as we watched them head into the darkened corridor.
Several of the others took out UV lanterns and turned them on bringing light to the room around us and I noticed that there was a section of old countertops against the nearby wall that looked to be stained with blood—so much of it that it was all over the floor in front of it; as I took a closer look I noticed that animal skins and bones were here and there and I had a pretty good idea about whoever had been here before us.
“Looks like whoever has been staying here has a decent survival skill—these bones and other stuff here suggests that they have been living off the land for a long time.” I stated as I turned to the others as my women gathered around me.
“A hunter huh?” Billy asked as he came up to examine the area beside of me.
“Looks that way…I just hope that whoever has been staying here isn’t hostile toward us—I know that there have to still be marauders out there…” I answered in deep thought as I glanced over the knives and other tools that sat on the countertop.
“Anyone holed up in a place like this is likely a loner…surviving off the land and whatever they can scrounge up from the outside.” Sheila stated in deep thought as she and my other women clung to me.
Shortly afterward the sound of rain pouring down on the rooftop above us caused us to glance up at the ceiling as water began to drip down in places—thunder boomed shaking the room around us causing the various objects around the area to vibrate; that was when Hugo and the others returned and it looked like they hadn’t found anything or anyone.
“Nothing…there are certainly traces that someone was here not long ago, but as far as there being anyone here now, that’s a big, fat nada.” Hugo reported as he shouldered his assault rifle.
“What do you guys think—should we stay here for a while—at least until the storm outside dies down?” I asked as I glanced around at the entire group.
“It seems like that might be a good idea—we’ve had to do a lot of driving through bad weather lately…maybe we can sit this one out.” Beau answered as he scratched the side of his face.
That was when I was distracted by my mom as she suddenly went into a fit of coughing—I glanced at my dad and sister and they both met my gaze with looks of uncertainty; I had noticed that my mom’s health had been declining over the past few weeks, what was causing it was anyone guess. I felt the comforting touch of Jennifer and Sheila as they wrapped their arms around me, Chloe, Rachel, Ivana and Roxanne done the same and I was forced to put the thought I was having out of my mind; the others of the group were settling in and moments later Billy and Kayla had a small fire going in the center of the room. The water from the leaking ceiling was still dripping down around the room—heavy at some places and I knew that this place wouldn’t serve as a secure location for long, not only against the weather but also against the undead, mutated hordes outside.
We broke out light travel rations and what needed to be heated or cooked was done so over the small fire, I ate and talked in a low tone to my w
omen and then I glanced over at Hugo and Amy as they got to their feet with their weapons in hand.
“We’ll take watch for a bit—we shouldn’t stay here longer than we have to though.” Hugo stated in a technical tone.
I nodded and settled down on the blanket that we had brought from the Bronco and my women settled down around me and it wasn’t long before I drifted off into a light doze—sometime later after an unknown amount of time had passed I was startled as a loud clattering sound erupted nearby and I opened my eyes immediately grabbing my AR-15 and pointing it toward the sound; there before everyone was a woman dressed in dirty, torn clothing that looked like it had been patched over with pieces of thick leather in places as well as decorated with small animal bones. She had matted red hair and a wild look in her eyes as the others shined their UV lights toward her, Hugo and Amy flanked her and it looked like she knew that she was trapped with no easy way to escape.
“Who the hell are you?” I demanded as her wild gaze fell on me as I approached her.
It looked like she was confused for a few seconds, like this was the first time that she had heard human speech in a very long time and then she got this focused look in her eyes and she spoke.
“I-I have been living here…in this abandoned building for many years…I hide from those dead things outside and I only go out at night to hunt for food and whatever else I can find…my…my name is Shae Little…” She stated in what seemed like a hoarse, cracked voice.
“We’re not going to hurt you unless you try something first…we’re survivors ourselves, we’ve been on the road for a while now trying to stay clear of those dead-heads and other mutations outside.” I explained as it looked like she was starting to calm down.
We explained the whole story, where we had come from, what had happened in the years past when we had traveled to Europe and then when we had traveled to Romania and killed Bowman; then the ordeal with Darkbourne and everything else that had happened since then—I then explained about how we had found the recording of a radio transmission from the survivors and how we had decided to make the trek to Echo Bay in Northwest Territories way up in Canada.
“Survivors way up there?” Shae asked in a surprised tone as everyone gathered around us.
“Yeah, that’s what it sounds like—the people who were surviving at that place we found the recording of the transmission at were gone, we’re not sure if that’s where they headed as well or what but we decided that instead of trying to continue to survive back where we were that it’d be better to try and find this Echo Bay place as there might be a place where we can actually hold out better against the undead hordes.” I explained in deep thought.
“I might as well come with you guys…I’ve spent too many years hiding and alone; hoping and praying that those things didn’t get to me…now that I’ve met you guys, I have hope that maybe I can finally live somewhat like a normal person—at least as normal as one can in a world overrun by flesh-eaters.” Shae stated in deep thought.
“Makes me think back to the time after we destroyed Darkbourne and sent the cure we developed into the atmosphere via rockets…hoping that it would put an end to all this, but nothing has changed really.” Amy stated in a tone that suggested she felt like the whole thing was her fault.
“Don’t dwell on any of that—we done what we thought would give the survivors still out in the world a fighting chance, and who’s to say that it didn’t?”
“Nicolas Bowman’s actions altered this world forever—there’s no going back to the way things were before October of 2000…we just have to try and survive.” I answered as I glanced around at the others of the group who all nodded in agreement.
“How much in the way of supplies does this place have?” Beau asked as he focused his attention on Shae.
“There are old weapon stocks in the armory over on the northwestern side of the complex…I have used some of what’s there over the past several months but not too long ago a large mass of those things broke through one of the weak barricades and overran the area and I haven’t been able to get back over there since.” Shae answered as she walked into a nearby room and brought out what looked like a floorplan of the complex.
“Hmm…we could definitely use the extra weapons and munitions if we could clear those things out enough to get to that armory.” Hugo stated as everyone gathered around the floorplan.
“No doubt the area is riddled with runners and other more dangerous mutations…we haven’t seen too many shamblers over the years—especially after the more dangerous strain of the virus started spreading.” I stated with a troubled look as my women wrapped their arms around me.
“If we’re gonna get those weapons and ammo we’ll need a sweeper team to go in with guns blazing—no doubt there are jumpers mixed in, we’ll need to deal with those accordingly.” Beau stated as he checked his ammo clip in his assault rifle.
“We don’t need everyone risking their necks for this—let’s figure out who’s gonna go.” Hugo answered casually.
We talked the issue through for several more long minutes and it was decided that I would lead the group into the northwestern complex with Jennifer, Sheila and Chloe while the rest of my women stayed back—joining me would be Billy, Richard, Morgana, Beau, Hugo, Marco, Jake and Kenyia; Remy and Mace would follow and offer support with their Dragunov sniper rifles and the rest of the group would stay in the main part of the complex to make sure none of the dead-heads or other mutations broke through behind us. We readied our weapons and I shared kisses and hugs with my women who weren’t coming as Billy done the same with Kayla and then I led the way that Shae had indicated and we soon arrived at the heavy steel door to the northwestern end of the complex and I glanced at the others with me and swallowed the lump in my throat before we all worked together to unlock the door and then push it open; we were immediately met with pouring rain as we now saw that there was an area of open air that spread out before us—the north side of the way we were being forced to take had a high chain linked fence but I could see that parts of it were torn apart and zombies could be seen on the other side and as I looked off to my left I seen that more of them were gathered in the path ahead. The horrible screams that still seemed to send chills down my spine even after all these years immediately followed as they noticed us and we opened fire with our weapons sending a hail of bullets into their upper torsos and heads dropping many of them but as we moved down the path I started noticing that many of them were starting to get back up and I knew that this was going to be a sticky situation.
“Heads up!” Hugo shouted as he used his teeth to pull the pin from a grenade before tossing it into the mass of dead-heads that were rising.
We took cover as the grenade exploded sending fragments of dirt, smoke, fire and bits of decaying bodies into the air.
“There’s the armory door—let’s hurry guys!” I shouted as I quickly drew my .357 magnum from the holster at my hip and fired a round that hit a jumper zombie that was flying through the air toward us dropping it to the ground.
“More are coming in through that destroyed fence back there—fall back!” Hugo shouted to the others who were waiting by the heavy steel door behind us.
I heard Remy and Mace’s guns fire as they took down several more jumpers that had tried to infiltrate their position and then Jennifer and Sheila opened fire splattering the heads of several zombies that were blocking the stairs up to the door to the armory—we all arrived and opened the armory doors with some trouble and we were able to get them open and all get inside before more dead-heads and other mutations arrived outside of them and started pounding on the door from the other side.
“Great…now how are we going to get back with those things blocking that door?” Billy asked in an aggravated tone.
“We’ll deal with that momentarily—let’s get what we came for first.” I answered as I took out my flashlight and shined it around a
t the room around us.
Everyone spread around the room and looked around, the darkness and the noise of the dead-heads and other mutations pounding on the door we had just sealed shut was distracting but with the aid of our flashlights we were able to find the main bulk of the armory stash—there were an abundance of assault rifles, SMGs, grenades as well as several squad automatic weapons; there were also several AK-74 assault rifles that had grenade launchers attached to them. I glanced at Billy as he picked up an M79 grenade launcher and looked it over before slinging it over his shoulder and then dumping a large amount of explosive and incendiary rounds into his bag. Jennifer and Sheila suddenly called my attention to a section of the room that I hadn’t seen yet and I fixed my gaze on several large weapons that I shortly after recognized as being AT4 Rocket Launchers—Hugo and Beau came over and noticed them as well and we all grinned at each other.
“I have the feeling that we’re going to need plenty of heat like this in the days ahead—looks like these babies have plenty of rocket ammo, let’s take them with us.” I stated smiling.
“That’s an anti-tank weapon—sounds good to me, we still don’t know whether or not we’ll bump into any of those fucking marauders; these should help keep everyone safe.” Hugo answered in agreement.
The others gathered up as much weapons and ammo as they could carry and the rocket launchers were strapped to several of our backs while Richard and Marco carried the large wooden crate that held the rocket ammo; we turned back to the door that we had come in from and I breathed a sigh of dread.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 72