“W-Who are you people—how did you get here?” He asked in a thirst-parched voice.
“We came to rescue this young woman—she was abducted from our home by those fuckers and we came to get her back.” I stated looking over the man with untrusting eyes.
“They abducted me from where I was living as well—it’s been over six months now…I was with a group of other survivors at a walled settlement way south of here in Manitoba—near Winnipeg…my name is Michael Glassman; I was a scientist back before the outbreak who was a part of a project to weaponize diseases.” The man explained with a distant stare.
“Is that right…?”
“Didn’t know a Nicolas Bowman, did you?” I asked with a dark look.
“No—but I take it that you’re going to explain who that is or was?” The man answered curiously.
“He was the sorry sack of shit who was responsible for the outbreak—for this entire zombie apocalypse and the fall of humanity.” Jennifer answered stepping up beside of me.
I glanced at my other women as Chelsea was now awake and rubbing her head like she was in pain—my glance soon went back to the man.
“Good grief—no, I’m not connected with anyone like that, I wasn’t I should have said—after all of the tragedies that I’ve witnessed over the years, there’s no way that I could have lived with myself had I been a part of something like that.” The man stated again with a shocked look.
“These fuckwads abducted you for a reason though—they probably found out about who you were and thought that you might be their ticket to continue Bowman’s work.” I stated folding my left arm over my assault rifle.
“Maybe…they brought in the girl several days ago and left her in here with me—they would come in and check on her every few hours and it looked like they were using drugs to keep her out; for the life of me I couldn’t understand why they would kidnap a female survivor, especially one who obviously didn’t have any significance to what they could be planning.” The man continued as his glance went to Chelsea—who was now being helped over to where I stood.
“Are you okay baby?” I asked as she ran into my arms crying.
“Y-Yes, I’m okay…one of them attacked me in the bathroom back home and the last thing I remember was them smashing my head into the wall mirror—I blacked out and started to come to after they had brought me here but then they injected something into my arm and I was out of it after that.” Chelsea answered as she kissed me several times.
“Nobody else is going to hurt you, I promise you that.” I stated hugging her tightly as I tasted her tears.
“We should think about getting out of here—there could be more of those assholes lurking around.” Ivy stated in a nervous tone.
“Might I be so bold as to ask you to tag along…?” The man asked once again getting my attention.
“That seems like the only thing we can do at this point—if they’re going to try and use you to continue Bowman’s work then we cannot allow that…just as long as you’re telling us the truth.” I answered as I helped the man up but didn’t cut his bonds.
“You’re leaving me tied up?” He asked glancing down at his bindings.
“Yes—you’ll stay that way until we get back to Echo Bay and figure out whether or not you’re telling us the truth; if you’re being honest then you have nothing to fear, but if you’re lying then you’ll find that these pricks here would have been better for you.” I answered grabbing his arms and prodding him toward the door.
We carefully retraced our steps through the lower areas of the structure finding a large cache of high explosives in one of the lower level rooms and I armed them on a timer and then we quickly made it back out and away from the structure making it back to our vehicle just before the buildings all went up in a massive explosion that sent debris high into the air as the fire and smoke lit up the night—my women loaded the man into the back of our marauder and both Ivy and Roxanne sat nearby with their guns on him ready to end him if he tried anything; I got back behind the wheel and waited as Jennifer and Sheila helped Chelsea get inside and then once everyone was ready, we left the area heading west toward Echo Bay. The trip back west took us several long days but those days were uneventful and we made it back to our fortress crossing the bridge and coming up to the gates, which were soon after opened allowing us to drive inside; first thing I noticed was that the courtyard had now been enclosed underneath a sturdy looking roof that covered the entire area. Several more areas had been added to the courtyard as well including a stable and area for livestock—watch towers had been built into the walls as well as those towers sported powerful .50 caliber Browning machine guns; Noah and Christina as well as the rest of our group greeted us as we parked our marauder and got out.
“Did you find Chelsea?” Noah asked with a concerned tone as his eyes met mine.
“Yes, we also brought back a man who says he was a scientist working on weaponized diseases—those marauder fuckers had captured him from his hideout down close to Winnipeg…that’s his story anyway.” I answered motioning to Michael Glassman as my women brought him out of the back of our vehicle.
“Weaponized diseases…?” Billy asked in a concerned tone as he, Kayla and Madison approached us.
It was at that moment when I noticed that Kayla was carrying twins and I smiled glancing at my women who looked surprised as well.
“Twin girls—we named them Lylah and Cora.” Kayla stated smiling as she showed the babies to Sheila and then my other women.
“Congrats—you guys have two more reasons to keep fighting now.” I stated shaking Billy’s hand.
“Thanks—now what was it that you were saying about this guy working on weaponized diseases?” Billy asked again drawing my attention back to the topic at hand.
“That’s what he told us—get everyone together and we’ll discuss this in the main hall of the first floor.” I answered as my women wrapped their arms around me and followed me toward the doors to the main structure.
The others followed as did Michael Glassman and once everyone was gathered before the roaring fireplace of the first floor main hall, I explained what had happened on our trip over to Lupin and then I introduced Michael Glassman and he stepped forward and started talking about the group he had been with before he had been abducted by the marauders as well as what he had done before the outbreak—as we listened, it started sounding more and more like there had been important research that he had been working on; information that had been left behind when he had bene abducted.
“I was working on a method of deploying a fire-based weapon over a large area—one that would destroy the undead masses and give those still surviving a chance to do just that, survive…all my research notes got left behind where I was hiding near Winnipeg; I have no idea if the people I was hiding with are still there and alive but I need to find a way to get back down there and recover my notes as well as any equipment from the nearby labs that might still be there.” Michael Glassman stated as he glanced around at everyone.
“Sounds risky but if there’s a way to wipe all those fucking things out with one fell swoop then it might be a good idea for us to help him…” Beau stated as he leaned against the nearby wall with a pained expression.
“Weaponized diseases…sounds like the shit that Bowman was into…I’m wondering if there could be a way of using the viral strains that he developed as sort of a trigger—like could we develop a way to trigger those viruses and cause the creatures to die?” Billy asked glancing around at everyone.
“I don’t know anything about what he was working on, but there might be a way to develop a countermeasure that would cause the viruses still living in the bodies of the millions of infected—or at least the ones gathered into a large enough area to deteriorate and die; it’s going to require a lot of lab equipment and things that you don’t have here.” Michael Glassman answered moments late
r as he turned back to everyone after speaking to Josiah.
“We have a lab here but it’s very basic—we’ve used it from time to time in the past to create Molotov Cocktails and other explosives but that’s about it…there’s also potential for an upgraded infirmary if we could find the supplies for that as well as someone with medical expertise other than just stitching wounds.” Josiah stated in deep thought as he grabbed the floorplan of the fortress and spread it out on the top of the nearby table.
“A trip back down to Manitoba is going to be costly and time consuming…but we need to figure out a solution to this situation with these dead-heads and other mutations—they keep getting worse and harder to kill and for the life of me I can’t figure out where the hell they’re all coming from.” I stated with a troubled look as my women clustered around me.
“If we were to go the route of weaponizing the viral strains that Bowman created, where would we have to go to find means of doing so?” Noah asked curiously.
“His lair in Romania was destroyed in the blast, so I doubt we’d find anything there…maybe the place in Ringgold, Georgia where Darkbourne took us to that time he captured us…” I answered in deep thought.
“Didn’t we bomb the hell out of that place though?” Billy asked raising his right eyebrow.
“Yeah…that’s a hell of a long ways away though—that’s practically right back where we started before we ever came here; the costs of making that kind of trip back down there to look for something that might not even be there would be very high.” Jennifer stated folding her arms across her chest.
“If we can get to Winnipeg, there should still be working planes at the airport that we could use to go wherever we need to go…if everyone is willing to commit to this mission.” Michael Glassman stated several moments later.
“So…we’re going after something left behind by Bowman—slash Darkbourne—in an effort to create means of destroying the dead-head and mutated legions once and for all?” Chloe asked in a confused tone.
“Yeah…that about sums up the plan—Bowman brought about this world through his selfish acts of vengeance and arrogance; his viral legacy lives on to this day and will continue to as long as those things exist, you also have to think of the people still out there surviving who get bitten or scratched every day that passes adding to the ranks…we need to find a way to destroy them once and for all.” I answered firmly.
“Another road trip…we almost didn’t make it back from the last one…but I know that what you’re saying is true—better than some actually; I’m in…I’ll go along with you and whoever else you decide to take on the trip down to Winnipeg and then back to our old stomping grounds around Ringgold, Georgia.” Beau stated in a motivated tone after several seconds had passed.
“I’m going for sure—I need to see this done, we’ve lost too much already…” I stated turning to glance at him.
I turned to my women knowing that they would have no part of being left behind and they all nodded and smiled at me—I just hoped that I would be able to keep them safe; the others of the group that had decided to come along were Noah, Christina, Beau, Michael Glassman, Shaun, Darrell, Aiden, Danicka, Julianna and Ham. I would be driving our marauder with my women, while Noah and Christina took their fortified Mack truck—Beau, Ham, Julianna, Aiden and Danicka would be taking the Camper 4x4 and Darrell, Shaun and Michael Glassman would be driving their Armored SWAT vehicle. We loaded up food and supplies as well as ammo and other necessities and then turned to the other group members who were staying there.
“You guys be careful—like you said, you almost didn’t make it back this past time.” Jake stated as he and Kenyia stood before me and my women.
“We’ll be as careful as we can be…I hope that nothing happens here while we’re gone.” I answered shaking his hand before nodding at Kenyia.
“I wish that I were going with you, but I need to stay here and make sure Kayla and the girls are okay…just take care of my sister.” Billy stated hugging me and then doing the same to Sheila.
“I’ll do my best—I promise you that.” I answered smiling.
“We better get going—it’s going to be a long trek down to Winnipeg…” Beau stated as he stood against the 4x4 camper holding a map in his hands.
“I just thought of something…” Sheila suddenly said drawing everyone’s attention.
“What’s that, babe?” I asked glancing at her.
“Yellowknife is the largest city in these parts—it was the capital…what do you think our chances are of finding an airport there?” Sheila asked with a hopeful look.
“I didn’t think of that…you might be onto something—if we can get a plane there then it would save some long hours of driving through the lower parts of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.” I answered smiling.
“I like that idea—we’ll head to Yellowknife and check out the airport there, if we can find a plane big enough, we’ll just transport our vehicles along with us.” Beau answered folding his map and putting it into his pocket.
We said our farewells to our families and friends and soon after left Echo Bay heading south and then southeast toward the capital city of Northwest Territories—it took us the rest of that day, all night and half of the next day to finally arrive there and it seemed kind of strange to be back in a large city after all this time; we managed to find our way to the airport and I led the way through an old fence and across the runway until we came to one of the large hangers where the larger commercial planes had no doubt been kept back in the day. Inside of the hanger we found several larger 747 airliners but then I spotted a C-130 Hercules cargo plane sitting on the opposite side of the hanger that looked like it had been abandoned many years before—as we got close to it, we saw that wooden crates and other objects were sitting around it covered in snow and those were surrounded by half-buried skeletons of what looked like had once been soldiers or government workers of some sort.
“My guess is that they were delivering relief goods to this place when it got overrun by the dead…let’s check those crates, there might still be something good inside.” I stated as I grabbed a crow bar from inside of our marauder and led the way up to the crates.
I stuck the end of my crow bar into the crease of the crate and after several minutes I pried it off revealing a large shipment of canned sardines and bottled water—Noah and Beau pried off the lids to several of the other crates and found cans of tuna fish as well as canned beans and corn; we happily gathered up the food putting it into our vehicles as Beau checked the cockpit and inside of the C-130 cargo plane. Moments later he reported that the inside of the plane was clear and that he thought that he could get it going again as well as fly it—he opened the rear cargo doors and we all drove our vehicles up inside of the cargo hold strapping them down with chains and heavy support straps as Beau and Noah then worked to check the area for a fuel truck or any other means of refueling the plane; shortly afterward they brought a fuel truck up to the side of the plane and they attached the hoses to the first engine on the right wing first starting the refueling process—this took several long minutes and then it was a rinse and repeat with the other wing’s engines. Around dusk of that same day we had finally finished refueling the C-130 cargo plane and we were ready to leave, it was just as well because the sounds of the undead were on the wind and as we were heading out to the main runway, I spotted a large mass of dead-heads and other mutations moving along the roadway on the other side of the airport fence and they were coming our way; it looked like the cold weather had stiffened their movements and their sprints that we normally seen them do were now more of a shamble.
“Let’s get out of here—those fuckers are getting closer.” I shouted as I stood looking out of the nearby window in the cargo hold.
Noah had lent himself to Beau in the cockpit and the two of them soon after lifted us off the ground and we left the city of Yellowknife b
ehind us—I had a hard time hearing much of anything over the roar of the engines, so me and my women all settled down in our marauder and waited; it was all that we could do at this point and being in a plane brought back the memories of when we had all fled the mainland of the States and headed to Hawaii. It also brought back memories of Angie and I silently wondered what she would have thought of what things had become in these times—I wasn’t even aware of the tears that were flowing down my face until Sheila called my attention back to when and where I was by asking me if I was okay; Jennifer placed her hand on my shoulder and seemed to sense what it was that I had been thinking about and she and Sheila as well as my other women snuggled closer and soon we had somehow drifted off to sleep. I remember having a series of dreams that night that showed me images of the past as well as things that didn’t look familiar, like events that hadn’t happened yet and just before the jolt of the plane landing in the waking world, I remembered seeing fresh snow on the ground around me, but something was wrong—something bad had happened because the snow all around me was covered in blood. I woke with a start realizing that we had landed, in Winnipeg most likely and we would soon be faced with the task of locating Michael Glassman’s hideout and seeing if anything or anyone remained before leaving out again to head back home to Georgia—at least to what had once been home.
“Another dream?” Jennifer asked as she noticed my face.
“Yeah…all I saw really was snow covered in blood…I don’t know what it means, could mean anything.” I answered in a low tone as I was trying not to alarm any of my other women who didn’t know about my talent of predicting events to come through my dreams.
“Hopefully it was just a dream…” Sheila stated wrapping her arms around me as we got out of our marauder and stood against it waiting for the plane to come to a full stop.
Soon after that, we opened the rear cargo door and got out to get our first glance at the city of Winnipeg—snow was still on the ground but nowhere near as thick as it had been back up where we had come from, the city itself sported high-rise buildings that looked more than halfway destroyed; it looked like the city had been bombed back in the early days of the outbreak.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 93