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

  I found several .9mm handguns inside the car and I handed them to Christina and Jennifer, then I found a .357 magnum, I gave that to Angie. There weren’t any more weapons so we went into the city, we could see zombies moving in large masses coming right for us, and they were being joined by the ones that were coming out of the woods. I opened fire on them with my shotgun decapitating heads; Angie was backing me up with her magnum. We were killing one zombie after another, but they just kept coming, and I had to reload. Noah and the others ran into a nearby bar and back behind the counter, Angie and I followed. I knocked over a large table and put it up against the door, a lot of good it would do us though, because all of the front windows shattered and zombies crawled into the front room. One came up to the bar where Noah and Christina were; Noah grabbed a wine bottle from the shelf and smashed it over the zombie’s head sending it to the floor where it twitched violently as a large piece of glass could be seen sticking out of the top of its’ skull.

  Christina was shooting and her gun clicked which meant she was out of ammo, Shiva and Marianna shouted getting my attention to a small room behind us that looked like storage—I led the way into the back room where it seemed to be safe, after everyone was inside; I shut the door and put a wooden bar across it. We could hear the zombies pounding on the door from the other side. Noah checked the door that was on the other side of the room, it was locked and sealed up so it looked.

  “Damn…I hope those bastards don’t get in here.” I stated as a chill ran down my spine causing me to shiver.

  Noah and Christina shared a secret smile and went over and sat down in a corner on some cardboard boxes.

  “We should try to get some sleep; I’ll stay up and do guard duty.” I said as I checked my ammo supply for my gun.

  I went over and stood by the door with my gun cocked and ready. Angie came over and lay down on the couch near me. I must have stood there just thinking for at least fifteen minutes, when I looked back at Angie she was asleep, suddenly the arms of several zombies smashed through the door right near me, everyone jumped awake startled—I stuck my shotgun through one of the holes and fired, blood splattered through the hole in the door and dripped down onto the floor as it took out one zombie, but there were plenty more of them to replace it.

  “Shit!”

  “We’ve got to get the fuck out of here!” Noah shouted as he frantically got to his feet.

  He started to kick at the door that was on the other side of the room, I told him to stand back while I blew the doorknob off, then we both attacked it ramming it at the same time with both of our shoulders—it fell apart and crashed to the pavement outside; we were just about to go outside when a zombie appeared out of nowhere and tried to bite us, I quickly kicked it off and it landed in a vegetable stand a little ways away, Jennifer fired and put a cap in its skull. We all started running through the parking lot past what looked like a small open market type of deal, Noah and Christina started running toward what looked like a gun and ammunition store despite my protests, Noah yelled back that there could be weapons and ammo inside. Once everyone was inside the store, I put an iron bar across the glass doors, but we all knew that it wouldn’t hold forever. The store was littered with bodies of customers and people who had obviously turned and been killed.

  Noah and Christina were walking down a isle towards a section where there were all sorts of ammo for every kind of gun you ever heard of when he put his foot near a seemingly dead body—it suddenly grabbed his foot and tried to pull itself up, it was a zombie of course, he fought it off then smashed its head with one swift stroke from his boot; when he raised his foot up, it was covered with thick black blood and pieces of the brain that were stuck to his shoe. Christina just about puked; she had to go into another isle while Noah took a roll of paper towel and tried to clean off his foot. I found some shotgun ammo on the counter as well as some magnum bullets, Jennifer went into the back room behind the counter and came back out tossing a sawed off shotgun to Noah—who looked to have regained his composure. Shiva and Marianna were in the back stocking up on ammo and other things and that was when two zombies busted through the windows in the back, they started coming for Noah and Christina. Noah aimed his newly acquired shotgun at the zombie and pulled the trigger, click, it didn’t do anything.

  “Shit!”

  “I ain’t got any shells!” Noah yelled as he repeatedly pulled the trigger backing away from the encroaching zombies.

  I threw over a box of shells to where he was and he started loading his gun—he barely finished in time as he fired at one of the zombie’s chest knocking it back, it didn’t fall and it resumed its hobbling his way; he fired again on the second one but it didn’t fall either, he was trying to reload and he had to kick them away.

  “How do I kill the damn things?” He shouted as he bashed one of them in the face with the barrel of his gun.

  I aimed my shotgun at one of their heads and fired blowing it off; Angie took care of the other one with her magnum.

  “You have to get them in the head—that looks like the only way to send them back to hell for good.” I answered as I walked over to stand in front of him.

  “Sorry…I’ll remember that next time…” He said as he loaded more shells into his gun.

  “Hey, guys, there are assault rifles here!” Christina shouted as she looked over toward us.

  I went over to look and so did Noah, sure enough there were—I took an AR-15 and slapped a clip into it and slung it over my shoulder; that was when a loud banging noise got our attention as the front window was surrounded by zombies, several of them busted through and attacked Shiva and Marianna, like a coward, Shiva abandoned Marianna to save her own ass, about seven zombies were on top of Marianna biting her as Shiva fled toward the front of the store where we all were.

  “Damn it woman—don’t you have any respect for anyone else but yourself?” I yelled at Shiva as I ran over and killed the zombies that were on Marianna.

  We managed to kill them and get Marianna into the back room just as the front door gave way and the whole mass of zombies came in—I looked behind the counter and noticed the corpse of a dead soldier—he had been dressed in a tactical vest and there were several grenades attached to it; I quickly reached down and grabbed one of the grenades from vest that the dead soldier was wearing and pulled the pin, I tossed it over to the door where the zombies where coming through and quickly ran into the room and shut the door locking it; the grenade exploded shaking the whole building, plaster from the ceiling came down and got in Shiva’s eyes.

  “Damn it!”

  “What the hell was that?” She spat as she used her fingers to try and wipe the plaster from her eyes.

  “Was that a live grenade?” Noah asked with a look of amazement.

  I nodded at him before turning my focus back to Shiva.

  “What the hell were you thinking leaving your friend like that?” I shouted as I angrily approached her.

  “For your information, boy—she’s not my friend; she’s just another hooker I was with when we were arrested, so shut the fuck up!” Shiva shouted as she looked to regain her eyesight.

  I wanted to smash her face for her saying that but Angie and Noah restrained me.

  “Come on you guys—we have better things to be doing!” Angie stated as she gave me a secret look rolling her eyes at Shiva.

  “Exactly, like finding a way out of this rat hole!”

  “Now we have to work together or we won’t survive.” Noah added as he stood between Shiva and me.

  I glared at Shiva one more time and went over to the door that led to the outside; peeking through the small hole I could see a truck parked there with its lights on.

  “There’s a truck out there, I’m going to go see if it’s got gas and if it’s safe.” I stated as I tossed my shotgun to Angie and slung my AR-15 from my back, pointed it at the floor and took hold of th
e doorknob.

  “Be careful baby.” Angie advised in a worried tone as she took my shotgun and held it for me.

  “I will.” I promised.

  I opened the door slowly and crept out toward the truck, my AR-15 pointed ahead and ready—once I got close enough to the truck I could see that the driver was hunched over the wheel dead, the rigor mortis had already taken effect and he was stiff as a plank; it looked like his throat cavity had been ripped out by brute force. Further examination of the truck revealed that the windshield was shattered like someone else had been inside the cab with him but had been thrown through the windshield. I pulled him out of the seat and onto the ground where he made a thud, then I got into the cab, the keys were in the ignition and it had almost a full tank of gas. I got out and examined the area, there were tire marks all over the place, and it appeared that this man had engaged in some kind of struggle. Something suddenly grabbed my feet and tried to pull me under the truck—luckily I broke free only to discover a female zombie underneath the truck that I hadn’t known was there, she barely crawled out from under the truck; I could see that her legs had been smashed by the wheels of the truck, it looked like she had been riding with this man and turned, then I guessed that she had attacked him but he somehow fought her off long enough to send her through the windshield and then he must have ran her over but I wasn’t sure on what happened next. I aimed down at her head and fired twice killing her, Angie and everyone else came out and they got into the truck—I was once again driving, Angie was beside of me, and Noah and Christina were in the rear cab, the rest of them were in the back; Shiva reluctantly helped Jennifer load the cot that Marianna was lying on into the back of the truck.

  Finally, I sped out of there and down the street, we had to pass through the town to get to the other roads on the other side, zombies were everywhere and the people in the back were constantly having to shoot at them to keep them from getting into the back of the truck; I took a wrong turn and went down an alleyway that was a dead end. I barely managed to turn around only to face a mass of zombies coming down the alley right at us, the women in the back were shooting and zombies were falling to the ground dead but they just kept coming.

  “Hang on!” I shouted as I drove head long into the hordes running some over, others grabbed hold of the truck only to be knocked off as I scrapped against the brick walls with the truck.

  Some of them had been knocked up onto the hood and were crawling toward us—with the busted out windshield there was nothing to stop them from getting to us; Angie grabbed my AR-15 and opened fire hitting the ones on the hood multiple times in the heads sending them flying off of the truck leaving us free and clear.

  Soon we were out of there and headed for a road that went into the woods, after a few minutes the terrain began to look familiar and then we pulled up in front of the house Angie and I had been renting where we just were not too long before; Shiva opened the rear cab window and stuck her head in.

  “What the fuck are we doing back here?” She demanded as she glared mainly at me.

  “We have to stay somewhere, that house is safe on the second floor—we can hole up in there for a while; at least until some help comes.” I answered as I glared right back at her in the rear view mirror.

  I drove inside the garage and parked, then Noah helped me put the garage door down and lock it—we grabbed the cot that Marianna was lying on and we carried her into the house; Shiva and Jennifer were in the lead with their guns ready, they stopped and opened fire at something in the side bathroom next to the bar and then they went on through the hallway. We had sat the cot down for a second to rest when Marianna rose up her eyes white and blackish blood pouring out of her mouth—she had turned into one of the foul creatures that had bitten her.

  “I’m sorry Marianna.” Noah said as he aimed his gun at her head and fired blowing it off, her body fell to the floor making a pool of blood on the rug.

  “That is directly your fault.” I said glaring at Shiva.

  “Oh shut up!”

  “Let’s just get going before more of them come.” Shiva answered turning her back.

  “Stupid bitch!” I said out loud.

  She turned around and flipped me off, then went on and that was when several zombies came out of nowhere and attacked Shiva knocking her to the floor—they were biting her in the breasts and in the neck; I stepped forward and opened fire on both the zombies and Shiva with my AR-15, after around twenty rounds, both the zombies and Shiva lay in a pile of blood and bodies dead.

  “I’m sorry about that you guys, but you all know as well as I do that anyone that is bitten by these creatures in the least little way becomes one; believe me, I did that bitch a favor.” I said as I looked each one of them in the face.

  “We understand, she was a smart ass anyway and I didn’t approve of how she treated Marianna.” Noah answered as he stared down at the gore.

  “Do-do you think that dad became one of those things?” Christina asked as she clung to Noah fearfully.

  “I don’t know…it’s possible, that is why if you run into him you can’t hesitate one second, because if you do you will either die or end up like all the others, that is why if you run into Jacob and he’s turned you must end his suffering by putting a bullet in his brain; believe me—these things aren’t the people that they used to be.” I stated as slapped a new ammo clip into my rifle.

  “Yeah, I know.” Christina answered hesitantly after a few seconds had passed.

  We went into the living room, there were several more zombies in the trophy room eating someone we didn’t recognize—after killing them, we boarded up the front door and all of the windows we could and then we went upstairs and scouted around; Angie was with me while Noah, Christina and Jennifer were together, we only found a few zombies on the second floor and we did away with them.

  “Chaz, how are we going to keep them from breaking in and coming up the stairs?” Noah asked as the five of us stood together near the top of the stairs.

  “I have an idea—there are some supplies we can use in the cellar, let’s get to work.” I said as I took the lead down the stairs.

  So the next hour was spent constructing a tall fence like thing around the stairway at the bottom, the fence was like fencing inside of a stable or barn, it was strong boards nailed together against the posts that were already there that held up the upper levels of the house—we made a gate on it and locked it up nice and tight.

  “Now this baby will keep those undead bastards out for sure.” I stated in a tone that plainly stated that I was proud of my own work.

  We went back upstairs and into one of the upstairs living rooms, I lit a fire in the fireplace and moved the TV over to where everyone could watch it in front of the fire; there were some reporters on and they seemed to be arguing, then the picture switched to what I guess was a press conference of some sort—a representative for the CDC was talking and I could tell by the look on his face and the sound of his voice that things weren’t good.

  “Any update on the medical aspect of this phenomenon?” A female reporter asked as a surge of camera flashes reflected off the representative’s face.

  “Little progress has been made due to the severity of this event—we’re finding that in the wake of these attacks we’re losing more staff members trying to understand and maybe develop an antibody for what appears to be a contingent of some sort.” The rep answered in a grim tone.

  “Can you tell us anything at all?” A male reporter shouted as another surge of flashes followed.

  “About all that I can tell you at this point is that this virus seems to be carried in the blood and saliva of the creatures and that anyone attacked by them dies and becomes just like them—they get up and kill, the ones that they kill revive shortly after death and become one of them; it’s a never ending process it seems.” The rep answered as he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.r />
  “Can you tell the surviving people across the nation anything about what to do in case they encounter these creatures?” A female reporter shouted as another surge of camera flashes lit up the dark room around us.

  “If you find yourself attacked by these creatures and you or someone you know are injured in any way—this includes being bitten, scratched or ingestion of bodily secretions from these creatures including saliva, blood and sexually secreted fluids then either you or that person must be destroyed on sight because they will become infected and turn.” The rep answered grimly.

  His statement seemed to cause a lot of outrage among the officials and another man was forced to step up beside of him holding his hands in the air.

  “No more questions—the networks will soon go off the air and everything from that point will be handled by the emergency broadcast system; I am told that the Secretary of Defense will be addressing the nation within a matter of minutes.” The man stated as the cameras shifted to him.

  I got up and turned the TV off and then snuggled back down in the floor under the blanket with Angie.

  “I can’t believe that this shit is happening…I hope that our families are okay.” I stated in deep thought as I thought back on everything I had witnessed.

  “So do I.” Angie answered as she rested her head in the nape of my neck.

  Noah and Christina were snuggled up together asleep and Jennifer was asleep as well, I drifted off to sleep soon after and woke up the next morning to the stench of death which was coming in from the half open window. I got up and walked to the window and looked out, bodies of people who I didn’t recognize where here and there on the ground and several clusters of the undead were feasting on them; the main mass of the zombies were here and there. Angie joined me and we were all watching out the windows when suddenly, we heard shattering glass and wood downstairs, I grabbed my AR-15 and took the lead, the others followed; when we got downstairs we seen that several zombies had busted in through the window in the front door—their bloody arms were sticking in through the busted parts of the door as I aimed my gun through the opening in the fence and fired blowing the zombies’ head off, blood and brains splattered all over the window.