“We better be careful—there’s no telling what or who could be lurking around this place.” I stated with a troubled look as my eyes darted around the area at the various buildings and structures that we close to the airport where we now stood.
“It’s a little way into the city—the hideout where I was with my group of survivors was located in a shopping center…if any of them are still alive then that’s where they’d be.” Michael Glassman stated as he came up to stand beside of me and my women.
“Someone needs to stay here with the plane—last thing we need is to get stranded here.” I stated as I turned and glanced around at my entire group.
“I’ll stay—my damn leg is hurting really bad anyway…” Beau stated with a pained expression as sweat beaded on his forehead.
“I’ll stay too just to make sure that he’s okay.” Julianna added as she glanced at Beau who nodded before heading back to the cockpit using whatever he could to hobble along.
“His wound didn’t heal properly—we don’t have the right medical facilities back at Echo Bay to deal with injuries of that scale…” Noah stated as he glanced after Beau and Julianna as she helped him climb the stairs to the cockpit.
“I know…we’re lucky that he’s with us considering he’s the only person out of the entire group who knows how to fly a plane—maybe we can find some medical supplies on this trip.” I answered as I turned and headed toward the support straps and chains that still held our vehicle in place.
I removed them after several long minutes and then we got into our marauder and backed it out of the cargo hold into the area around the rear of the plane while the others done the same with their vehicles—once we were ready, I led the way into the city following Michael Glassman’s instructions that he was giving us over the CB and as we traversed into the city we started seeing more and more signs that something big had went down only recently—there were what looked like effigies and reliefs here and there that looked like some sort of gang insignia; bones and other parts of long dead corpses had been strung up with barbed wire to make twisted decorations and I couldn’t help but shake at the thought of what we could possibly be going headlong into. The dead-heads and other mutations were here and there but as we got deeper and deeper into the city it looked like someone had gone through great effort to make it to where they couldn’t get into some areas—I glanced at Jennifer at my side and I could tell that she was worried too, this place felt wrong; that was when the CB came to life startling us and at first I didn’t recognize the voice until I realized it was Beau and he sounded frantic.
“Get back here to the plane—there’s someone circling the airport in some kind of armored hummer…I don’t think they’re friendly either!”
“Marauders…got to be…” I stated with a dark look.
“You guys keep going and find Michael’s people if they’re still alive—we’ll head back to make sure that Beau and Julianna are okay.” Noah stated over the CB as he slowed down behind us and circled around heading back the way that we had come.
“Be careful.” I answered into the microphone.
We watched as Noah and Christina disappeared back in the direction that we had come before we continued on in the direction that Michael was still leading us in—within several more minutes we arrived outside of a building that had once been a shopping center, the windows were covered with old pieces of plywood that sported bullet holes and blood and the barricade that had obviously kept the place blocked off and safe was broken and destroyed; I parked our marauder and gathered my weapons as my women done the same and then we got out of our vehicle as the others done the same nearby.
“This is it…I don’t like the look of this place; it looks like it was attacked since the last time that I was here…” Michael Glassman stated with a troubled brow.
“Marauders are no doubt using this city as some sort of staging ground…what they are up to is anyone’s guess…” I answered in deep thought.
Soon after, I led everyone into the front entrance of the hideout and my women clustered around me with their weapons ready as the others followed closely—as we got deeper and deeper into the structure we started seeing a lot of signs of an attack, blood was everywhere in places and we soon after came to an area where produce had been sold back in the day to see that several lifeless bodies were strung up with cords; they hung from rafters on the ceiling and it looked like their stomach cavities had been ripped open as their intestines hung down out of their bodies like crimson tentacles. Several of the heads were missing and as we stared up at the bodies with our flashlights it looked like the heads had been chopped off with a dull blade, meaning that the people had probably been alive when it had happened.
“This is fucking sick…who would do this to a living, breathing person?” Chloe asked as her gaze went to me and then to others around her.
“Someone who this kind of world breeds…” A female voice suddenly stated from off to our left.
We all readied our weapons and shined our lights in the direction of the voice and then we saw that it belonged to a young redheaded women probably in her middle to late twenties—she was covered with dirt and grime and it looked like she was nursing a wound on her left side because there was bandaging that was stained red with blood.
“Anya—is that you?” Michael Glassman asked as he approached the young woman.
“Michael…?”
“How did you get back here—who are these people?” The young woman asked with a strange look on her face.
“They saved me from the place I was being held by those marauder assholes—they came with me here to see if any of you were still alive as well as to gather any of the lab equipment that I had here.” Michael Glassman answered.
“When those fuckers attacked here, they killed everyone…everyone but me—I’ve been here by myself for weeks now, hiding and trying to stay hidden…” The young woman explained slowly as it looked like she was recalling a horrific incident.
“I’m sorry that you had to go through that, Anya—is there anything left of the lab equipment left that I was using?” Michael Glassman asked stepping closer to her.
“No…they took everything that was here—I don’t know where they took it but it’s not here…” She answered glancing up at him once again.
“These people here rescued me from a group of those same marauders who attacked you here—they took me to the far northern town of Lupin and held me inside of an old mining complex…these people broke in and killed them all and saved me as well as one of the young women you see here before you…they have a stronghold at Echo Bay in Northwest Territories where there are many others still fighting to live in this world.” Michael Glassman explained as he made gestures to us.
“Thanks for saving him—I guess you guys know why he was so important to us…more than likely that’s why he was abducted in the first place…”
“My name is Anya Harper…I’m 27 years old, I spent most of my young life as a teenager shadowing a doctor that resided at a hospital in Cedar Rapids, Michigan back in the day after the outbreak turned this world into a wasteland filled with walking corpses…he taught me everything that I know and if you’ll have me, I would like to go with you…there’s nothing here for me now and if I stay here sooner or later those marauder assholes will find me and do the same to me that they done to our friends.” The young woman stated stepping up before me.
Her eyes were blue and they had a luster about them that made me trust and believe every word that she spoke and I nodded in agreement introducing myself and then my women—Anya seemed surprised to learn that I was with so many and she inquired on how that was working out; I was used to it though, it seemed like there wasn’t many people who could actually believe that one man could be with so many women and there not be jealousy or malice of some sort eat its way into the fold.
“It started out with just me
and my wife…my only wife Angie…back in the early days of the outbreak, we brought Jennifer into our relationship because we both cared about her deeply and it didn’t take long for love to blossom—then my wife was killed in a car wreck.”
“Rather than give up and let this world and my grief destroy me, I kept going with Jennifer taking her place in a way as well as Sheila here and from there it grew little by little until what you see now—we don’t have jealousy because each one of them knows that I love them, all in their own special way.” I explained with a deep concentration.
“Well—you’re cute…I can see why you have so many girlfriends.” Anya answered smiling a crooked smile.
“Thanks…” I answered blushing.
I could feel her eyes roaming up and down my body and I was sure that she had noticed my eyes doing the same with her—her slender figure and her exposed stomach, worn, tight jeans and the top that she wore; there was no doubt in my mind at that point that I had gained another lover as she came up to me and my women and started kissing me and then Jennifer and Sheila as well as the others. Michael Glassman suddenly cleared his throat and this brought me out of the thoughts I was having and I regained focus on what was going on around me—that was when shouting from the others of our group that had waited near the entrance alerted me that something was going on, that was followed by gunfire that was coming from outside of the shopping center where we were; I quickly led the way back to the entrance with my women and Anya close behind and we came out into a raging snowstorm, bullets were flying through the air and I suddenly caught one in the right shoulder that sent me falling backward into the wall of the barricade knocking the piece of plywood from the window as I hit it. I lay there on the ground stunned, I couldn’t believe what had just happened and it seemed like all that I could hear for several seconds was the distorted voices of my women asking me if I was okay as they ducked down behind the cover of our vehicle close to me—Anya quickly grabbed me pulling me up to the side of our vehicle and Jennifer grabbed the first aid kit that was inside and handed it to her; I watched as she and my women pulled my fur coat off of me and then checked the wound, which luckily was clean, there was an exit wound on my back and I watched in great pain as Anya patched me up kissing me and after that, she was done. The others of our group were shooting back at the marauders who had attacked us and they were slowly able to drive them back enough to where we weren’t in the heat of battle—that was when I heard shouting and I squinted as a clatter of something hit the pavement only a few dozen feet from where we were and seconds later I realized what it was—it was a grenade; Ham and Shaun both turned and tried to get away from the area but the grenade exploded sending the both of them headlong through the windshield of the armored SWAT vehicle that Darrell was desperately trying to pull forward to serve as a barrier against the onslaught—shrapnel from the explosion spread out and I watched in horror as pieces of it caught Jennifer and Angel as they worked to try and shield me and my other women. Fire was spreading as the explosion had ignited a fuel trail that was coming from the gas tank of a nearby wrecked car and my eyes glazed over even more as the car exploded catching Chloe, Roxanne, Aiden and Danicka in the blast—fighting my way to my knees I crawled over to check on Jennifer finding that she was still alive but bleeding badly, Angel’s condition was about the same; I then crawled through the pieces of fiery debris and checked Chloe first slowly hanging my head as the realization came to mind—she was dead. Through the flood of tears that covered my face, I checked Roxanne learning that she too had suffered the same fate as Chloe—I sat there in the cold, wet melted snow not knowing if what I had witnessed before me was real and even though I could still hear shouting and gunfire it seemed like I was hundreds of miles away, hell, it seemed like I was on a whole other planet altogether; Sheila and Rachel soon got me back to where I was and they sat there on the ground weeping next to me as my other women still alive clustered around us. Anya was tending to Jennifer and Angel and after several long minutes she got the pieces of shrapnel removed from their wounds and got them stitched and bandaged up—by that time it was clear that Shaun and Ham had also been killed as their lifeless bodies lay on the ground near the armored SWAT vehicle covered in blood; Darrell grabbed an RPG from inside of his vehicle and soon after aimed it toward the direction the enemy marauders were still shooting at us and he fired sending the rocket propelled grenade round into the thick of them causing a huge explosion that soon after left the area silent as the falling snow soon became all that I heard. I glanced down at the snow around me as the fresh blood from the ones I loved flowed across the pavement—it was then that I remembered the dream that I had had not long before, the dreams always came true and at this point they seemed more like a curse than anything else; I glanced at Chloe’s face and I was surprised to see that she didn’t have a look of fear or despair on her face—she had a look of peace, she had died protecting me and the others that she cared about. I fought my way to my feet and I picked up Jennifer helping her into the safety of our marauder and then I done the same for Angel—I helped gather Chloe and Roxanne’s bodies placing them into the back of our vehicle wrapping them in tarps before turning to see that Darrell was gathering the bodies of Aiden and Danicka as well as Ham and Shaun putting them into the back of his vehicle as well.
“This is fucked up…they shouldn’t have been here…” He stated in a wounded tone as he stood there motionless staring down at their blood-soaked bodies.
“They knew the risk that this trip was going to present…they chose to come along…I know it’s not much of a consolation but I lost two people that I loved as well…Jennifer and Angel might not make it either…” I answered as my eyes met his.
“They’ll make it…we need the get the hell out of this place though or none of us will survive when those asshats come back with greater numbers.” Anya stated as she wrapped her arms around me.
“I guess that we’ll have to look elsewhere for the equipment that I need…let’s get going.” Michael Glassman stated as he picked himself up from the spot where he had been hiding during the battle.
“Let’s get back to the plane…I just hope and pray that Noah and Christina made it back there unscathed and that everything is okay.” I answered as I helped Anya into our vehicle.
Michael Glassman climbed into the armored SWAT vehicle with Darrell and the two of them followed us and I sped out of that area heading back toward the airport—it took us a little over twenty minutes to get back there and we seen a destroyed hummer sitting not far from the plane that was burning out of control filling the air with thick, black smoke and I was relieved when I seen Noah and Christina’s fortified Mack truck sitting at the rear of the plane and then seen them waving to us; I pulled up to the back of the plane and we slowly got out, their relieved faces soon turned to ones of horror when they seen the shape that we were in and seen what had happened.
“Chaz…” Noah stated as he met me near the driver’s side of our marauder.
“Those fucks caught us in an ambush…Chloe and Roxanne are dead, Jennifer and Angel seriously injured…Ham, Shaun, Aiden and Danicka are all dead.” I reported slowly as the reality of it all was something I was still having trouble swallowing.
“Shit…man, I am so sorry…” Noah answered as he placed his hand on my shoulder hanging his head.
“Thanks…let’s just get the hell out of this place and continue on the Georgia—maybe we’ll find what we need there…” I answered patting his shoulder as I got back into our vehicle.
I waited as Noah drove his truck up into the cargo hold securing it before I done the same with our marauder and then Darrell pulled his vehicle in last before we all climbed up inside as the rear cargo door was closed—the bitter news was shared with Beau and Julianna and then we learned that they had been attacked as well by the same group of marauders, luckily they had been able to destroy the enemy vehicle with an RPG as well as refuel the plane;
we didn’t linger in that spot for long after that, Beau got us airborne and we settled back and waited for the long trip down into what would be familiar territory, I doubted that any of it would bring back good memories however knowing that that place was where we had fled from—it had been overrun and the armies of the dead would be there waiting.
[Chapter Five: Fading Hope]
Around a week had passed since we had left Winnipeg and the disaster that had befallen us there—we had since made it to Chattanooga, Tennessee and Beau and Noah had landed our plane on the runway of the airport allowing us to get out for the first time since we had left Canada; we weren’t taking any chances with the possible radiation levels from years before when the nuclear power plant had gone critical and resulted in a thermal nuclear explosion to the north of the city when we had destroyed the first form of the Entity. Most of the area still looked the same, but we got off the plane wearing our gas masks and Beau locked the plane down as we would be forced to leave it there while we headed south to Ringgold, Georgia to try and find something that Darkbourne had left behind—something that Bowman himself might have had that would serve as a way to destroy the undead hordes forever; I led the way south in our marauder hoping and praying that we didn’t run into something that we couldn’t handle. Jennifer and Angel were recovering, it had been a close call for them but thanks to Anya’s quick action and her medical experience, they would make a full recovery in time; I was still numb from the realization of the loss of Chloe and Roxanne but I knew that I couldn’t dwell on it or let it drag me down, they would want me to go on and to continue living one way or another. Rachel was getting close to her due date and the flight across the North American continent had been uncomfortable for her, I knew that Shae was also winding down on her pregnancy and that I needed to go the extra mile to make sure that they were safe—I also had suspicions that Chelsea and Ivy were pregnant as well due to the morning sickness that they had been having the past few days. The roadway south was familiar but it didn’t lend me any comfort because most of the places we passed were in ruins—not to mention the fact that the dead-heads and other mutations were so thick in spots that we almost couldn’t get through, I managed to get us to Ringgold late that same day and we were forced to seek shelter as a bad thunderstorm came up; rain was pummeling our windshield and the wind was making it almost impossible to progress—we made it to what had been Darkbourne’ compound by dark and we got out with our weapons ready.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 94