[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles

by Watkins, Charles

  His hand was shaking so bad that he couldn’t steady the weapon and the creature that had formally been Valerie was getting to its feet and looking his way—Zoey, Nicole and Rebecca grabbed his arm from behind and pulled him to them out on the balcony as they all dreadfully looked upon the creature as it steadily advanced their way.

  “Holy shit…no!” Nicole cried as she pointed into the bedroom where they had just been.

  Whitney was now up and walking and she too looked to have died and become just like Valerie had—Charles gathered his nerves and grabbed the tampered plate glass balcony door closing it in their facing causing them to bang on it from the inside.

  “That’ll buy us some time…but not much—we have to find a way to get down to the street!” Charles stated in a frightened tone as he turned and ran to the edge of the balcony looking down.

  “There’s a hedge we can use…over here.” Zoey stated as she pointed down to a nearby lattice hedge that was covered with vines.

  Charles went first climbing down the hedge skillfully until he was at the bottom in what seemed like a side alleyway to the apartment complex, he looked back up as Zoey came down next and then Nicole leaving Rebecca to be the last and final one on the top of the hedge; she had made it about halfway over the edge of the balcony when they suddenly heard the plate glass of the door above shatter. Rebecca cried in terror as both Valerie and Whitney grabbed hold of her and started biting her in the neck as well as the shoulder—the hedge gave way with the added weight and it came loose from the side of the building falling across the span of the alleyway sending Rebecca as well as the two undead creatures over the other side of the nearby fence impaling them on pieces of rusty metal that were sticking out of a large dumpster on the other side. Charles stared at the spectacle in horror as Rebecca breathed her last and died on the piece of metal that had impaled her, only seconds later—she had revived and was just the same as the other two.

  “There’s nothing that we can do for them—let’s get the hell out of here before more of them show up!” Zoey stated grabbing Charles by the hand and almost dragging him toward the street.

  Finally he came without hesitation and once the three of them were out in the open street they glanced around at what could have only happened hours before during the period of time when they had been asleep, staring around with confusion and bewilderment—the street was filled with wrecked vehicles and bodies were here and there laying in the road. The sound of more of the same creatures were drawing closer as Charles, Zoey and Nicole slowly clustered together and backed away from the direction the sounds were coming from—that was when a crashing noise came from off to the right just ahead of them; a male figure appeared stumbling around the wreckage and when he caught sight of them he screamed a sound sounding like an enraged wild animal and started running toward them. That was when the sound of screeching tires came from behind them as a bright light shined on the incoming creature, this was followed by loud automatic gunfire as bullets tore into the upper torso of the creature until seconds later one struck it in the head sending it to the ground where it lay there motionless. Charles glanced back into the light shielding his eyes trying to see as a voice called out to them.

  “Any o’ you been bit?”

  “No—we’re all fine, we’ve lost several close friends that were attacked and bitten though.” Charles called back still shielding his eyes as Zoey especially clung to him.

  “Get your asses up ‘ere then!” The same voice shouted back after a few seconds had passed.

  Charles led Zoey and Nicole up to the rear of the truck and they were helped up into the truck bed by two men who looked like hicks if there ever was any—they both held high powered assault rifles that they had no doubt picked up off dead soldiers or something; the driver was the one who had called out to them and he looked like a simple-looking man. He wore a stained plaid button down shirt with a dirty white wife-beater underneath of it, his face was sparsely decorated with patches of light brown colored facial hair and his hair was relatively short; Charles was surprised to see a young woman probably no more than sixteen or seventeen years of age sitting in the cab of the truck beside of the driver—next to her was another man, this one was big and burly with somewhat longish hair on the top that was almost the color of a carrot.

  “Where y’all from?” The driver asked as the two men in the back who had killed the creature settled into their places around Charles, Zoey and Nicole.

  “We lived just over there in that apartment building but those things broke through and several of our close friends were killed and I guess turned into them.” Charles answered motioning to the apartment building they had just escaped from.

  “What are they…they killed Valerie, Whitney and Rebecca…what the hell is going on?” Nicole asked as she shook violently.

  “Dead sons of bitches as far as we can tell—they’ve got most of the roads blocked out of this side of the city; we’ve been lookin’ for a way out and we happened to come across you three.” The driver answered grimly as he glanced back at them through the open rear cab window.

  “I remember seeing the news on the TV a while ago stating that some kind of strange phenomenon had started and that the hospitals were filling up with bite victims.” Zoey stated with a worried look as she clung to Charles.

  “Radio’s been cranking out that shit now for hours…by the sound of things it’s serious.” The man behind them who was closest to the tail gate stated.

  “Who are you boys anyway?” Charles asked looking each of the men in the face.

  “Name’s Devon Henry…this is my best friend James Conroy and his daughter Amanda.” The driver answered motioning to the big burly man in the cab next to him as well as the teenage female.

  “Then back ‘ere is Jed Collins and Buddy Wells—Jed’s the one with the funky hair.” The driver continued.

  “How’s about you young’uns tell us who the heck y’all are now?” The man identified as Jed Collins stated as he propped his assault rifle against the side of the truck bed.

  “My name is Charles Raymond Wilson—these are my girlfriends Zoey Copeland and Nicole Kemp.” Charles answered nodding at the man.

  “You’s being one lucky man Ill’s say—havin’ two purty girls like ‘em at yer side.” Jed answered with a grin that revealed several missing teeth.

  “Yeah…umm…do you fellas have any extra weapons that we can use?” Charles answered quickly changing the subject.

  “There should be a cache of guns back ‘ere in the truck bed.” Devon answered as he glanced at them in his rear-view mirror.

  Charles knelt down and searched through the weapons cache and soon found an AR-15 assault rifle as well as some ammo for his .45 revolver, he handed a gun belt that looked that have belonged to a police officer to Zoey—it had a police issued .9mm Berretta, several ammo clips and a nightstick; Zoey looked at the others with questioning eyes as she took the belt and strapped it around her small waist.

  “We picked ‘at up from a dead cop a little while ago…he was dead and wasn’t gonna need it anymore.” Buddy answered grinning as he could no doubt see Zoey’ discomfort.

  “Nicole—you think you can handle this one babe?” Charles asked as he handed her one of the two last weapons available.

  “I guess I’ll have to or else I won’t survive.” She answered as she took the AK-47 assault rifle from him.

  “Here’s one for you too.” Charles stated handing Zoey the last weapon which turned out to be an AR-15 assault rifle like he had chosen.

  “Should we even be concerned as to where you guys got these weapons?” Zoey asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

  “We didn’t steal ‘em if ‘at’s what yer askin’.” Jed answered as he spat a large glob of snuff and spit over the edge of the truck bed.

  “Yeah…we came ‘cross a military checkpoint that had been overrun and des
troyed by ‘em sons of bitches and we got the weapons from ‘ere.” Buddy answered as Devon drove on through the wreckage of several wrecked cars on the roadway ahead.

  Suddenly something fell and hit the top of the truck causing Devon to momentarily lose control crashing into a fire hydrant, Charles got protectively in front of Zoey and Nicole when he looked up and seen what it was that had hit the top of the truck; there getting to its knees was a horrible looking zombie—it was missing eyeballs and looked uncoordinated, it knew however that they were there as it snarled and screamed letting foul black blood pour from its mouth.

  “Fucker!” Charles shouted as he quickly used the butt of his assault rifle and bashed the creature in the head until it went tumbling off the top of the truck and onto the pavement of the street below.

  “You guys okay?” Nicole asked as her attention focused on the three in the cab of the truck.

  “Yeah…we’re fine.” Devon answered as he once again got the truck back on the road.

  After several more minutes they arrived at what looked like a police line where many people who had taken up arms against the undead creatures were gathered; military detachments of soldiers and officers were there as well as dozens of clusters of civilians who looked like they didn’t have anywhere else to go. Devon pulled his truck up to the rear of the area and everyone got out as they were approached by what looked like the chief of police.

  “None of you folks are bit or injured, are you?” He asked as he looked each one of them over cautiously.

  “Nope—we’re all fine luckily, what’s goin’ on ‘ere with all these people?” Devon asked as he glanced around at everyone.

  “This is one of our last fortifications left in this city as the rest have been overrun—there are still people over at JC Memorial Hospital but we haven’t heard any news in the past hour, nor do we have the manpower to attempt a rescue.” The police chief answered grimly.

  “Sounds like things are getting worse…” Charles stated folding his arms.

  “Son—you have no idea—I’ve lost damn near an entire police force to these things and they just keep coming no matter how many we kill.” The police chief answered glancing at Charles.

  “Baby—look…” Zoey stated grabbing hold of Charles’ left arm and pointing off to the left.

  He turned and looked at what she was pointing at—several injured bite victims were nearby lying on cots and they looked pretty bad.

  “What happened to ‘em boys?” Devon asked turning to face the police chief as he too noticed them.

  “Those fellas were defending the police barricades a few minutes ago and they got hurt by those things.” The police chief answered nodding at the bite victims.

  “Sir…I don’t mean to sound cold or cruel or anything like that, but those ARE bite victims—have you even stopped to pay attention to what happens to those who are bitten or even just scratched by those creatures?!” Charles practically shouted as he turned to face the police chief.

  “What are you talkin’ ‘bout boy?” The police chief demanded as he focused his attention on Charles.

  “You’ve obviously not been payin’ attention—I ain’t stayin’ somewhere where there are folks who could turn at any minute!” Jed stated as he nervously pointed his assault rifle toward the cots.

  “Put your weapon down!” Another cop yelled pointing his pistol at Jed.

  It was at that point when shouts and screams from soldiers and cops near the northern side of the barricade sounded as another wave of the undead creatures surged toward them, the police chief momentarily lost interest in Charles’ group as did the others who had witnessed Jed’s statement; the few seconds that followed were ones of pure chaos as the undead surge hit the barricades and its defenders—screams of the dead and dying filled the air and Charles and the others fearfully fell back to Devon’s pickup truck with their weapons in hand. A horrible scream sounded behind them drawing their attention as the people who had been on the cots reanimated and attacked them—Jed and Buddy beat them off with their guns and then opened fire on them hitting them in the head multiple times before they both climbed into the truck bed.

  “Get us the fuck out of here—this place is lost!” Charles shouted pounding on the top of the truck with his fist before he used his assault rifle to open fire on a group of undead that were racing straight toward them.

  Devon gunned it and they all held on for dear life as they smashed through the western barricade and raced away from the doomed outpost as dozens of the horrible creatures took chase after them, Jed and Buddy fired on them as they quickly left the horde behind and soon they were racing through a series of suburbs on the western side of Wichita—dozens of houses and mobile homes that they passed were either burning or surrounded by masses of undead that were seemingly after something or someone inside of the houses; the skyline above the city as they looked on it was filled with black smoke and gunfire and screams could be heard in almost every direction.

  “We’ve got to keep goin’—it’s not safe anywhere around here!” Devon stated as he slammed on the brakes bringing them to a sudden stop as the road ahead was blocked by a wrecked semi.

  “Looks like we’re gonna have to take a detour…” Amanda stated in a fearful voice from the front of the cab.

  “Hang on guys!” Devon shouted as he turned the wheel to the left and gunned the engine plowing headlong through a wooden fence and into what had been someone’s yard.

  After crashing through flowerbeds and the end section of a shed they came out onto the next road over dragging pieces of debris along with them.

  “Take it easy—that damn near knocked us out of the truck!” Charles shouted as he wrapped his arms around Zoey and Nicole protectively.

  “Shit—hang on!” Devon shouted as he sped up toward the top of the hill that they were now racing up.

  The houses and buildings were passing by so fast it was almost a blur and it was seconds later that they heard the screaming of the people in the cab and the screeching tires of the truck and those were the only things Charles and his women heard before the catastrophic impact of the truck smashing into something big; Charles seemingly regained his senses of where he was and checked on Zoey and Nicole who both bore bloody cuts on their foreheads from the impact.

  Jed and Buddy were nowhere to be found and it seemed like in those last few split seconds before the crash that Charles had seen the both of them go flying kicking and screaming over the top of the truck, Charles climbed over the side of the truck and helped Zoey and Nicole out as well before he stumbled to the front of the truck with his assault rifle slung over his shoulder—the sight of the front and the cab of the truck was so gruesome that he had to turn away as Zoey and Nicole both began to weep.

  Devon was dead—he had been thrown over the steering column and through the windshield and he lay lifeless and bloody on the hood of what was left of the truck, Amanda and her dad James were still in the cab—they had been crushed by the metal and steel of the truck and the other vehicle that they had smashed into; that was when Charles got a good look for the first time at what they had smashed into—it was a ambulance that was now almost beyond recognition due to the damage.

  “I can’t believe what just happened…” Nicole stated as she clung to Zoey as Charles checked to see if anyone had survived in the ambulance.

  That was when they heard a horrific scream and he opened fire on something or someone inside of the back of the ambulance, he came back around shortly after and took them both into his arms.

  “It looks like the paramedics were taking a bite victim to the hospital when the victim turned and attacked them…Jed and Buddy are in front of the truck…smashed against the side of the ambulance.” Charles stated pointing to the gore of the two men that had been hidden from their view at first.

  “What are we going to do now?” Zoey asked looking around at the area wi
th bewilderment.

  “We’ve got to keep going—we can’t just wander out in the open, we need to find a safe place to hole up until help comes.” Charles answered as he gripped his AR-15 and led the way away from the wreckage of the two vehicles.

  “What if help doesn’t come…those things are everywhere and every person they attack or kill becomes one—there’ll be an army of them in a matter of hours if there isn’t already!” Nicole cried as she worked to keep up with Zoey and Charles.

  “I know that you’re scared babe, but try to keep your voice down—we need to try and avoid those things if possible so we can find a safe place to hole up.” Charles answered glancing back at her briefly.

  The three of them worked their way up to a nearby onramp to the nearby interstate and they saw firsthand the level of devastation that had been caused in the few short hours since the crisis had begun—vehicles were everywhere along the roadway, some overturned onto their tops or smashed completely through others; blood was everywhere and broken glass made a crunching sound underneath their shoes as they walked through the destruction. Hours later they came to an abandoned farmhouse where it looked like the occupants had up and fled when the shit had hit the fan hours before—Charles led the way inside and he checked around the area for signs of trouble; after several long minutes of checking each room of the house he came to the conclusion that it was safe for the most part and that the three of them could hole up there for as long as it remained that way.

  “We’re going to have to do something about these windows—they won’t keep those things out for long should they sniff us out in here.” Zoey stated with a worried expression as she eyed the front living room windows that looked out in the field and woods surrounding the house.

  “Let’s see if we can’t find some lumber and nails—there’s a shed out back, you two stay here and I’ll go see what I can find.” Charles answered as he stepped up beside of her talking her into his arms.