User:Cub McBub/Outbreak: Cub's Chronicle Volume II
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This story is part of the Malton Chronicles. This story is fan-made, and is not officially part of any background history for Urban Dead. |
Present Day: A Raid
Present Day…
Cub walked down the lonely dark street… arm extended back… being yanked by the weight of the red wagon he was pulling… a toolbox… radio… and three unloaded shotguns… all contributing to the load the boy was towing…
His other arm dangled in front of him… a pistol held in that hand…
The boy was just coming back from a typical raid. He had traveled a few blocks from the police station that he was using as a safe house to the old military fort. Those large complexes seemed to be a magnet for the Zeds.
Cub had walked down to the fort… and ran at the gatehouse. Finding three zombies there he started shooting… downing two before running low on ammo and energy…
This survivor was smarter now… “Don’t get carried away…” he would tell himself…
“Get out of the “hot” zone and into a safe house.” This typically meant that once Cub entered a “hot” area that the first thing he would do is plan his escape route… which meant finding a building close to the target that he could enter… not as easy as one would think… many buildings being barricaded to such an extent that is was impossible to enter…
Zombies are slow though… not only to move but also to react as well… so often Cub picked a building that the undead had already weakened or breached. Usually it was easy to run past them and enter the building… even Zeds inside the building where not difficult to avoid...
Once inside… this child found it easy to hop from building to building… without detection… and extract himself from the “hot” zone…
Of course… tonight was not typical… Cub got stuck outside on the way back from the fort… and now was walking in the middle of the street.
He wasn’t that worried though… at least not yet… Zeds seemed pretty scarce here… with most in this area concentrated in the fort and surrounding blocks… so he was fairly confident that he’d find a building he could enter.
Cub approached a damaged cinema… looking it over… he smiled…
“I wonder if there’s a generator… maybe I can watch a movie…” the boy’s lips scrunched for a moment… “Um… too many boards here… I’ll try around the back…”
This boy wheels his wagon up the alley between the cinema and the next building… Cub raises the pistol… ready... feeling ensnared in the walls on either side...
“Two shots… that’s all I have…”
He exhales in relief as he arrives at the back of the building… no one … or no THING … in sight…
Cub scans the rear of the building... and smiles as he notices a small opening where planks were nailed to a window frame… but appear loose…
He approaches the window… then stops in his tracks…
“shuoop ssshhuoop”
Cub lets go of the wagon… and raises his gun as he spins in the direction of the sound…
“ssshhhoouup”
“That dumpster… behind the booger dumpster!” he thought…
Cub just stood for a minute… thinking… indecisiveness gripping him… “What do I do? If I pull at the barricade to try to get in… it’ll hear… and probably attack… not good... especially if I’m halfway in. I’m getting too tired to look around much more for another building…”
Cub sighs… then straightens his back… approaching the dumpster… gun raised…
“Only two shots…”
Present Day: A Raid: Part 2
Taking a wide arch, Cub walked around the dumpster… rounding the corner from where the noise was coming from…
“shuoop ssshhuoop”
The boy saw what appeared to be a somewhat chubby woman… on her knees… hunched with her back facing Cub… so that it was impossible for Cub to see the face…
IT… for Cub knows that this wasn’t really a woman… well... not a human woman... but one of THEM…
IT seemed very intent on what it was doing…
“shhheerpp”
Looking closer the boy could see that the Zed was bent over a body… legs laid out… an arm flopped to the side… a small pool of blood and… other pieces…
Cub curled his lip involuntarily… anger… something that was becoming a more common emotion in the boy as time went by…
He took a step forward and raised the pistol… the Zed still unaware… “shhrouuppp… crack… kkkurrk… um…” so captivated in its meal.
“Hey!” Cub said nonchalantly…
The THING instantly spun around… entrails of its victim’s stomach still clenched in its teeth… the bottom half if its face covered in blood…
It growls… “hhhrrr”… opening its mouth… the intestines falling away from the mouth…
The Zed… who from appearances used to be a older woman… crouches… eyes filled with rage and hunger… bloody fingers curled like claws… teeth bared…
BLAM!!
The woman’s eyes widen in shock… looking down then up at Cub again in seeming disbelief… a slight trail of smoke seeps out of her mouth… from where the bullet had entered… leaving a rather large hole out the back of the mouth…
The zombie slumps over… body twitching in spasms… eyes still wide in disbelief…
Cub walks over… then notices the t-shirt the older lady is wearing… a smiling teddy bear cub stands… wearing a baseball cap… and ice-cream in one hand… with the words…
GRANDMA SPOILS ME!!
Cub hesitated… and took a deep breath… looking at this former grandmother… now eater of flesh… its eyes alert… meets the boys… they seem to plead…
Cub’s eyes start to water… “I hope you stay dead…”
BLAM!!
Not long after… inside the cinema… Cub sits alone in a dark room… crying quietly… the thoughts of a movie forgotten…
Seeing one grandmother… reminded the boy of another…
Nagging Worry
Early Sept. 2006:
Cub sat in the basement of his home… alone. This is where the eight-year-old boy waited when his grandmother was on supply runs.
She would go on these runs with a small group of neighbours… all survivors.
The boy thought back to the morning… when Blaine Hennessy... who... like it or not... seemed to have been given the mantle of leadership among the neighbours... had arrived with a small band of others. Blaine… and a couple of the others… holding hunting rifles…
“OK Love… You stay in the basement now… like always… make sure and put the locks on” the old lady gently placed her hands on his head... leaned down... and kissed him on the top of the head… “Read a book.. I’ll be back soon… I love you!”
She turned and left with the group… turning and waving back every few feet…
Now it was afternoon… and Cub stood and started to pace… growing anxious. Normally these supply runs only took two to three hours.
It’s already been five hours… not that this was the first time a supply run ran long. The group never engaged any Zombies… even lone ones… for fear of attracting others… but always avoided contact. Sometimes this meant some creative… and long detours…
This boy was eight though… and knowing that sometimes there were delays didn’t stop the growing feeling of worry… and panic…
“I can’t take it anymore”
Cub trudged up the basement steps… at the top he sighs… and takes out the key ring. He wants to be a good boy… do as he’s told… but… this child couldn’t resist any longer. He had to get upstairs… and see if there was anything going on… plus… he was getting hungry.
Even though he hadn’t heard any movement since coming down here Cub was cautious. He placed his ear on the door… listening... nothing… just the wind…
Slowly and carefully he placed each key on the ring in their respective padlocks… five in total…
Opening the door a crack he peeked out… nothing…
Pushing the door wide Cub walked into the living room… empty… quiet…
He then quietly walked to the boarded up picture window… and looked between a gap in the boards… purposely put there in order to get some view outside… the streets were empty… with not one sign of life… or un-life…
“Where are you Grandma!?”
