[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Read online

  [HGB]

  Humanity Gone Bad

  [The Dead Chronicles]

  1999-2020 Charles Watkins

  Published by:

  Light Switch Press

  PO Box 272847

  Fort Collins, CO 80527

  Copyright © 2019

  ISBN: 978-1-949563-76-4

  Printed in the United States of America

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, digital photocopy, recording, or any other without the prior permission of the author.

  All rights reserved solely by the author. The author guarantees all contents are original and do not infringe upon the legal rights of any other person or work. The views expressed in this book are not necessarily those of the publisher.

  Dedicated to my family—to the memory of my first wife Angela Nicole Watkins and my daughter Mace Kasey Virginia Watkins and my mother Lorraine Ivy Watkins; dedicated to my wife Sheila, father Ron, sister Melody Carter and brother-in-law Billy Finnen.

  Acknowledgements: To the memory of George A. Romero—he inspired me in so many ways, more than I can count and he is greatly missed.

  Reader Advisory: This novel contains graphic detail of violence, blood and gore as well as graphic language and explicit sexual content; if such things offend you then stop reading now…you have been forewarned. For those of you who are still here, then I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading this book as it represents twenty years of my life.

  Salute,

  Charles Watkins

  PART ONE:

  [Fall of Man]

  The Nightmare Begins…

  It was October 24, 2000; I, Chaz Watkins, a normal 20-year-old and my wife Angie were staying in a remote cabin in the foothills around Shawnee, Oklahoma. We were taking a break from the distractions of the everyday life and we were enjoying our spare time alone.

  The somewhat warm night air was drifting in through the half-open window as we kissed in a hot and heavy way and things were just getting started when a wild knocking at the front door interrupted us.

  “Damn it!”

  “I wonder who that is….” I said getting up and putting my robe on.

  I went to the door and answered it; three people grabbed me in a fear stricken way and started begging for help.

  “Please!”

  “You have to help us—they’re everywhere!” The man shouted.

  “Just calm down and come inside and tell me what’s wrong.” I answered easing out of the man’s vice-like grip and opening the door wide so all of them could come inside.

  There were six of them in all, the man that had grabbed me, two teenage girls, a teenage boy, and two other women who looked like they were in their mid-thirties.

  “Now, what the hell is this all about?” I asked once everyone was inside and seated.

  The man who had grabbed me introduced his group in a somewhat rushed fashion before turning back to me with the same urgent expression on his face; their names were Jacob O’Brian, Christina O’Brian, Jennifer O’Brian, Noah Patterson, Shiva Casey, and Marianna Thompson.

  “I’m Chaz Watkins—that’s my wife Angie; now will you get on with whatever it is you’re trying to tell me?” I asked in an annoyed tone.

  “Well…myself and my two daughters here were at the hospital visiting my wife Linda who was hospitalized several weeks ago after a severe car accident, and we were up there and we started noticing something very strange…the whole damn hospital got completely quiet…it was an eerie silence that scared the shit out of us, then we heard moaning in the room next door…at first we didn’t know what to think of it because there was another patience’s room next to my wife’s and we thought that whoever it was might be in pain…but then this nurse came stumbling into the room blood running down her face and all over her clothes…all we could get out of her was something about the bodies in the morgue coming to life…and attacking people…just then, one of those “living corpses” busted through the door and attacked the nurse, I tried to fight it off but it just kept coming back and soon it was joined by more of them, we had no choice but to try to get my wife out of there, so I picked her up and slung her over my shoulder…I know that she wasn’t supposed to be moved, but what other choice was there…I didn’t want to just leave her there, we must have made it out of that room and halfway down the hall, just when we were about to the elevator, a pack of those undead bastards pulled Linda off of my back and started…eating her alive…all I could see was blood squirting and hear her screaming, I wanted to help her so bad but I knew that I had to protect my two daughters, so we got into the elevator and we were out of there. To our horror those things were all over the city, killing people on the streets, people were trying to escape, some were in their cars but being attacked anyway, I just kept driving, we seen them for miles and miles all over the countryside, then we found Noah here, he said that he had been over at a friend’s house playing chess when his friend had turned into one of these undead creatures and tried to attack him, luckily, he was able to get out of there and we agreed that we all had to get to a safe place, next we found those two women, they were locked up in a police cell block—all of the cops were dead, so we took them along. Finally we made it here, we’ve been running for hours now, please help us!” Jacob stated in a shaken voice with somewhat of a pale face.

  “So you’re saying that zombies attacked the hospital and the city…you do realize how utterly insane this sounds, right?” I answered as I folded my arms.

  “It’s the truth mister!” The teenage guy named Noah stated as he came to stand before me as well.

  “I swear on my own life that it’s true—all of it—I wouldn’t dream of making up some sick shit like this as some sort of a joke!” Jacob shouted in a pleading voice.

  “Zombies…that’s a tough one…if that is true, then I hate to think what will be in store for everyone; but I believe you, Angie, honey—could you turn on the TV and see if there is any news on?” I asked turning to her.

  “Sure baby.” She answered.

  She walked over and turned the television on, there was a blue screen with white lettering, it read: We interrupt this broadcast with a bulletin from the emergency broadcast system—due to widespread and increasing acts of unexplained violence which involve mass murders and cannibalism by persons or creatures of unknown identity, martial law has been declared in all fifty states as of 9pm EST. The national guard has been mobilized in many of the large cities to try and bring this chaos to an end—many outlying towns and communities are without electricity, water, gas and telephone service and citizens are advised to get themselves and their families home and barricade themselves in securely; we strongly advise persons not to venture outside—not even to reach family members or loved ones. The assailants are described as slow moving at first before attacking in bursts of speed, they are to be considered extremely dangerous when in large numbers—they will attack, kill and devour all warm blooded species included humans…this warning will remain in effect indefinitely, stay tuned for reports from your location.

  “I don’t believe this shit…” I said with wide eyes.

  “So, now do you believe me?” Jacob asked as he came over to stand beside of Angie and me.

  “Yes…but how the hell did this happen?” I asked as I looked around at each one of their faces for answers.

  “Is this your house?” Noah asked as he glanced around at the room.

  “No—we’re rentin
g it from a friend of ours back home in Georgia; all the furniture and stuff here is his.” I answered as I focused my attention on Noah.

  Just then, the front window shattered and a one of the assailants mentioned on the bulletin crawled through the busted remains of the window glass and into the room—it was a horrible looking thing covered in blood and flesh that was hanging off of various parts of its body; its eyes were a milky white color and once it stood up on its feet and got a good look at us it screamed a horrible sound and it started coming for us. Everyone fled into the trophy room and against the wall, the creature was in the room now and it was tearing around the corners of the doorframe as well as various objects that were between us and it and the thing was making a horrible sound like that of an enraged animal and it was steadily coming for us; I remembered that there were hunting rifles and shotguns in this room—I ran forward and kicked the zombie in the chest knocking it backward to the floor and made my way over to the wall where a gun rack was kept and I smashed the glass cabinet door and grabbed a .12 gauge shotgun. Before I could point the gun at the zombie it was on me again trying to bite me with its broken teeth—I bashed it in the face with the butt of my gun and then kicked it again causing it to stumble back as I aimed my weapon at its midsection and pulled the trigger—nothing happened.

  “Shit!” I shouted as I looked at the advancing creature with dread.

  I kicked it back once again and dove into the drawers and I managed to find two shells and I loaded them into my gun just barely in time—I aimed at the zombie’s midsection once again and fired, to everyone’s surprise, it decapitated its torso from its legs, and to my horror, the damn thing was still coming at me. Angie ran over to the fireplace and grabbed a poker and came over and stabbed it through the back of the zombie’s skull, it moaned louder than before and a thick pool of blood formed below its body.

  “Are you okay baby?” Angie asked as she looked me over with concern.

  “Yeah—the damned thing didn’t get the chance to bite or scratch me luckily…I guess we’ve figured out how to kill those damned things.” I answered as I brought her close gathering my own nerves.

  “Son of a bitch!”

  “What are we gonna do now?” Noah asked in a frantic tone.

  “The TV said to stay put…I think that we should board up the windows and the doors that way those things won’t be able to get in here.” I answered after a few seconds of looking around at the various windows and doors around the house.

  “There’s not enough time!”

  “Those things are everywhere!” Jacob shouted in a fear-stricken voice as little beads of sweat poured down his forehead.

  “Look, if we all work together we can do it, now there’s lumber in the cellar; you guys start looking for some hammers and nails, come on, we can do this.” I stated in the best voice I could muster to try and motivate everyone to work together.

  Jacob and Noah went downstairs to get the lumber and look for hammers and nails while I found some chicken wire in the hall closet, I used that to cover up the back door in the kitchen which didn’t have much of a lock. I could see the undead moving in mass out the kitchen window; they were slow, but already on the back lawn. After at least ten minutes or so of working, the waiting was getting more and more intense as the undead hordes got closer and closer, several of the windows shattered in the trophy room and the zombies pushed the boards away that we had just gotten nailed up and crawled inside.

  “We can’t stay here—do you have a car?” Jacob asked as he and all the others ran to Angie and me in the kitchen.

  “Yeah, but it’s running on empty and we might run out in the middle of nowhere—we can’t take that risk!” I answered in a frantic tone as Noah and several of the others slammed the kitchen door shut pushing a heavy cabinet over in front of it.

  “We don’t have any other choice, we can’t stay here!” Noah shouted as the banging against the other side of the cabinet and the kitchen door got more and more intense.

  “Fine…let’s go then.” I stated with a dark look as I grabbed Angie’s right hand leading the way toward the garage.

  Everyone followed us into the garage and piled into the car, I was driving, Angie was next to me, and everyone else was scrunched up in the back. I turned the keys in the ignition but it didn’t do anything.

  “Come on you piece of shit!” I shouted as I continued to turn the key in the ignition and fight with the gas pedal.

  Finally, it started and I pushed the button on the remote for the garage door to rise, it didn’t do anything.

  “Shit!”

  “Of all the times for this fucking thing to be acting up!” I shouted getting out of the car.

  I went over and kicked the power box twice and it sputtered to life and the door went up, I was turning to get back into the car when I bumped right smack into a zombie that had made its way into the garage, it just about bit me, I managed to knock it back into the far wall long enough to grab the first thing out of the corner of the garage that I could find—which turned out to be a metal pole for a tetherball game and I turned it pointing at the creature and drove it through its eye and out the other side sending it to the floor where it gushed blood and died then I got back into the car.

  “Are you alright baby?” Angie asked in a concerned tone as she checked me for injury.

  “Yes babe, I’m okay, we’re out of here!” I answered as I turned on the car’s headlights and put it into gear.

  It was at that moment that the garage door splintered and several zombies came into the garage and latched onto the sides and the back of the car and started banging on the roof and the rear windshield; I sped out of the garage away from them as some of them lost their grip and flew off.

  “Shit—we’ve still got some on the car!” Noah shouted as one of their hands came in halfway through the window of the rear passenger seat.

  Several zombies were hanging onto the top of the car and I knew that I had to try and knock them off somehow before they busted the windows and got inside the car; I sped toward a grove of trees near the edge of the field and through low hanging branches attempting to scrap them off, it wasn’t getting all of them, but it was working, that’s when the car started to sputter and die, I fought with the gas pedal but it died right there in an open field. It was dark and was starting to rain; the undead could be heard coming from just about all directions.

  “Fuck!”

  “Now what the hell are we gonna do?” Noah yelled as everyone climbed out of the car and looked around with dread.

  “Come on!”

  “We can’t stay here!” I shouted taking the lead away from the car as the ones we had scrapped off the top of the car a ways back could be seen getting up and heading toward us.

  We ran down a slope and through the entrance to the woods, there were briars and other things causing us to slow down but Noah pulled out a hunting knife and hacked through them, we were getting deeper into the woods when we noticed that Jacob had fallen behind, we could all hear him shouting and hear the constant gunfire from his gun; I went back to see where he was, that’s when I saw him down on the ground gun still shooting, there were about ten zombies on top of him sinking their vile teeth into his flesh. Some of them had noticed me and were starting to come for me; I turned and ran back to where the others were waiting.

  “Where’s our dad?” Christina asked with a fear-stricken voice as she looked at me expectantly.

  “H-He…they got him.” I stuttered as I seemingly choked on my own spit from the shock of what I had just witnessed.

  “What—No, that can’t be true!” Christina cried as she stared off into the direction of the sounds of the undead.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, he didn’t make it…he died fighting, at least he didn’t go down a total victim, at least he knocked off a few of their asses before they got him.” I said turnin
g away.

  Christina grabbed my arm and whirled me around to face her.

  “Do you call being eaten alive not dying a victim?” She asked tears coming to her eyes.

  “No, but…Look, I’m sorry…come on everyone, we have to go, now.” I said walking away.

  Christina was lagging behind filled with sorrow; Noah put his arm around her and walked with her.

  “I know how you feel…my dad died when I was 10.” He said as he stared off into the dark woods.

  “Well, at least your dad wasn’t eaten alive…” Christina cried as she wiped tears from her eyes.

  “I know, and I’m sorry about your dad, the only ones to blame are those damn zombie things…I wish I were back home in Brooklyn…although it’s probably the same way there too.” Noah answered as he stared at the ground as he walked.

  Christina looked up into his eyes her eyes shining through the tears. “What’s it like there?” She asked.

  “Well, it’s not as bad as some people think, although it’s bad in certain spots.” Noah answered as he thought back on his past.

  Christina brought his head down and kissed him sucking on his lower lip; after several minutes of stumbling through the darkness I seen that we were coming to a clearing, I could see the bright light of fire, just ahead was a burning town, bodies littered the streets and wrecked cars were everywhere. There was a police car across the street from where we were, we ran over to it and I opened the driver’s side door only to be startled as a zombie jumped out from the seat and grabbed me, I fought it off and kicked it in the head, but it didn’t affect the bastard much; Noah grabbed a broken night stick from inside the car and stabbed it into the back of the zombie’s head killing it.

  “Thanks man.” I said as I nodded at Noah.

  “Anytime, dude.” Noah answered as he looked down at the corpse.