by Stark, Ken
“Richie! William! You're next! On the double!”
Sk8rBoy William steadfastly refused to go, and only a hard shove from Mason got Richie moving. The kid had barely taken a step before he caught Christopher's eye, and all but threw himself back into the barricade beside him.
“I'm good!” he shouted, straining every muscle against the barricade. “Christopher! Get your mother out!”
It was an infuriating act of mutiny, but Mason couldn't help but respect the two a little more because of it. In truth, he didn't mind the trade-off of Richie and William for Christopher and Inez. The two big sophomores had double the strength of the other two combined. But the mutiny didn't end there. Christopher balked at the very suggestion of abandoning his friends, and Inez downright refused.
“Don't you be telling me what to do, young man,” she huffed at Richie. “And don't you dare refer to me in the third person when I'm standing right here!”
Richie managed a strangled, “Sorry, ma'am...”
In any other situation, at any other time, Mason would have laughed. But with the situation as dire as it could ever be, he instead took a small wooden chair that was doing nothing to support the barricade, and all but threw it at Richie and Christopher and Inez, all huddled together in a knot.
“Get the fuck out!” he fairly roared with anger. “All of you! William, you too! We can't hold them! Go! That's an order!”
The four of them exchanged looks that might have said a million words, but they still made no move to go.
But then, Hansen hoisted himself through the window and charged at the barricade, throwing all of his two hundred pounds of weight into it and snarling at Richie and William.
“You heard the man! Get the fuck out!” he roared, before he nodded to Inez and telling her, plainly, “Inez, my dear, please see your son safe. If these other two give you any shit, just pick 'em up by the ears and drag their sorry asses out.”
“Like children?” Mason heard Inez quip. Whatever Hansen said in reply was lost in the roar of the swarm.
Inez pointed wordlessly at the window and held that position until all three youngsters reluctantly abandoned the barricade. While the three of them jockeyed to be the last to go, Inez put a hand on Hansen's arm, and her lips moved in a whisper only the two of them would ever share. As Hansen released a heavy sigh and Inez turned to follow the other three out, their whole world suddenly collapsed.
CHAPTER XXIII
Mason saw it coming.
With only him, Hansen, Alejandra, Addison, and Becks left to hold back literally tons of rage, the outcome was inevitable. The five of them were simply no match against the swarm. It wouldn't be long.
The other defenders must have known it, too. Alejandra shared a look with Addison, then she looked past him to Hansen, and their respective silence spoke volumes. Becks might have used those last seconds to say a few parting words to her father, but with him at one end of the barricade and her at the other, there was no chance. She looked up at Mason and mouthed a few words, and even if he hadn't been able to read her lips, the look in her eyes told the tale.
I love you...
Mason’s heart skipped a beat at those three words he hadn't heard.
But before he could even begin to mouth them back, there came a crashing and splintering of wood, and Alejandra's shrill cry of, “Mierda!”
The whole left side of the barricade crumbled away.
The collapse happened in quick little images of death. He saw Christopher shove Richie through the window and grab Sk8rBoy by the shoulder to toss him through next. There was an image of Addison and Alejandra hopping back and turning their guns loose. Then, the big body of Gary Hansen filled his entire field of view as the man charged toward his daughter.
At just that moment, the rest of the barricade collapsed directly on top of Mason, and all he knew was the weight of a thousand elephants crushing him to the floor.
It was almost too much.
With no room to expand his lungs, he only stayed conscious through sheer force of will. He was on his stomach, with his arms pinned between chest and floor. But it was actually a lucky break. If he'd been on his back, he wouldn't have had the leverage, and if his arms had been anywhere but directly under him, they would've been useless. As it was, the task was nearly impossible, but he somehow turned his wrists enough to plant his palms squarely on the floor. Summoning every ounce of strength he had left, he pistoned his massive arms and crawled to his hands and knees, upending the table that had fallen squarely on top of him and throwing alphas in every direction. With most of the weight gone, he gave one final push to his feet and threw the table backwards, knocking a dozen more alphas to the ground and plugging the hole for the one precious second he needed to get his bearings.
Sarah was at the window. Inez was beside her, looking as if she had just seen the face of the devil himself as she fumbled to get her gun free. Mack and Clancy had dissolved back into the swarm and were doing what they did best – eluding the swarm as easily as shadows and sowing utter confusion while they took them down by the dozens. Christopher and Alejandra and Addison had their guns out and were unleashing holy Hell on the swarm. And Hansen was with Becks, but they were in trouble. Hansen was trying to get her to her feet, but some part of the barricade had fallen on one of her legs, pinning her down. And through it all, alphas charged and raged and clawed at anything that moved.
With his trusty rebar left behind in Gloria and his knife gone, Mason had only one weapon left. He drew the colossal Desert Eagle from his waistband and took aim at a pair of alphas tearing toward Hansen and Becks. Again came the explosions, and two skulls were nearly atomized. Then, he targeted three more alphas charging after Mack. But before he could pull the trigger, Sarah dropped all three of them with as many shots. She took down three more, then her pistol ran dry and she turned her shotgun loose, pumping and shooting, pumping and shooting, and blowing great gaping holes in the swarm with every blast.
The explosions from Sarah's shotgun were easily matched by the thunderous boom! from Mason's Desert Eagle. Every pull of the trigger from that monstrous handgun was accompanied by the most incredible spray of gore. Such was the awesome power of the weapon that oftentimes, the bullet would pass straight through one alpha and into another, taking them both down. And at least once, a bullet actually passed through two alphas and still retained enough kinetic energy to drop a third.
But even if Mason had a thousand clips, it would never be enough. The barricade was utterly gone and the swarm was pouring through in a flood. He shot until his last clip ran dry. Then, he dropped the gun to the floor and grabbed whatever he could find to fight the raging horde.
One of the tables used for the barricade had splintered into a dozen pieces. One of the splinters looked enough like a 2x4 to catch his eye. He snatched it up and swung away.
One swing took off the top of a head. The second caught an alpha squarely behind the ear and sent it spiraling through the air. A third pounded a groove into an unruly mat of hair. A fourth shattered a jaw.
Again and again he swung – pounding, bashing, clubbing at every alpha within reach. And still... it wasn’t enough. Even with a constant hail of bullets, and Mack and Clancy creating their own brand of mayhem... it wasn't enough. At last, Sarah ran out of shells to feed the shotgun, and a sudden surge in the swarm had Alejandra and Addison backpedaling toward the window, firing as they went.
Mason knew the end was near.
Alejandra made a desperate grab for Hansen as she retreated, but he shrugged her off and redoubled his efforts to dislodge his daughter's leg from the debris.
“Hansen!” Alejandra howled at him. “Hansen!”
But the look on his face said it all. He would never leave his little girl. Not for anything.
Alejandra dropped a spent magazine to the floor and slapped in her last fifty rounds, and with a single jut of her chin Addison's way, they both stepped up on either side of Hansen and laid into the swarm with unbrid
led fury.
Every shot that she and Addison made hit home, but the mad jumble of bodies did little to stem the tide. The swarm poured in relentlessly, and the time finally came when Mason could feel claws on all sides. He turned and swung and turned and swung, and knowing that he was losing the fight, he took one last fury of swings and made for Becks.
Hansen was digging at the tangle of debris for all he was worth, and he was making some headway. But he would never be able to get her out in time.
In seconds, Becks would be dead.
One second after that, Hansen and Alejandra and Addison would follow.
And one second after that, the rest of them would die.
So it was all or nothing. Do or die. Literally. Everyone he knew in the world was about to be torn to pieces, and he had precisely one chance in Hell of affecting the outcome.
He caught Christopher’s eye and flashed him a signal. As Christopher and Inez concentrated their fire on the swarm surging up the stairs, he swung away at the rest in an absolute rage. He caved in the side of a skull and bashed in a face on the backswing. Then, he brought the 2x4 down on another alpha's head and caught another in the jaw on the way up.
As those fell, others appeared.
And then others.
And then others.
He threw himself into a pair of alphas, bowling them over, and leapt to his feet to bash two more to their knees. A kick to an ankle. An elbow to a throat. A punch to a breastbone. An elbow to a jaw looming over his shoulder. A downswing to a forehead. An upswing to a jaw. A thumb gouged in an eye.
Now, he was a street-brawler, fighting for far more than his life. He pounded and kicked and punched, over and over and over, just to buy Hansen those few seconds he needed to get Becks free. And as if the universe had taken note and chosen to reward him for his efforts, Becks' foot suddenly popped out from whatever had been holding it, and she and her father turned their fury on the swarm.
They could have run. They could have turned their backs and hightailed it to the window and made their escape. But... they didn't.
Hansen drew his pistol, Becks retrieved her javelin from the floor, and together, father and daughter fought for all they were worth. And in a singular moment of absolute clarity, Mason realized why.
They were fighting for him. They were putting their lives on the line for him. The woman who had ceased to love him was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a man who outright hated him, and they were risking everything they had... for him.
Mason didn't need the added motivation. With death pouring in on a thousand feet, he swung away like a madman. One more down. And another. And two more. And as the pile of bodies grew around him, the swarm was forced to stumble blindly over them, giving him just enough of an edge to be able to pound the life out of a dozen more.
But... he was only human, and the swarm had no such limitations. The entire Quad was funneling though a pair of shattered doors and up those very stairs, and no force on Earth would be able to stop them.
With Sarah keeping the path clear with her kukri, most of the college kids had made it through the window. Only William remained, but just as he was about to follow the others through, Inez's .22 rifle ran dry, Addison dropped his empty weapon and went for his SBD, and the last of the college kids bravely swung his crossbow off his back and joined the battle.
He had half a quiver left, perhaps fifteen bolts, and he made every one of them count. He cocked, loaded, and fired in a blur, taking down one after another, after another, with an expertly-aimed shot straight through the heart.
“Mack!” Sarah called to Mackenzie over the roar. Whether it was the tone of her voice or the realization that the war was already lost, the girl complied.
She tripped up one last alpha and took down two more with a pair of handclaps, then she signaled to Clancy, and the two of them charged for the open window. Clancy bounded effortlessly through, Mack followed like a tiny gymnast, and Sarah grabbed Inez by the arm, screaming at the top of her lungs to be heard over the bedlam.
“Your turn, Inez! Go!”
But the woman would have none of it. Not if it meant leaving her son behind.
“Christopher!” she howled. “Christopher!”
Dutifully, her son ran to her, and it was in that split second of arguing over which of them would hang back long enough to see the other safe that the end came. If Alejandra could have magically produced one last fifty-round magazine, it might have bought them a few more seconds. But it was not to be.
“Mierda!” she cursed, dropping her Tommy gun and drawing her machete. And just like that, time was up.
The defenders collapsed back toward the window as a unit, but this was no orderly withdrawal. It was all they could do to hack and slash and stab and kick enough, to keep from being overrun.
“We can't!” Hansen growled between pistol shots, and there was no need to say more. Mason had already done the math.
It was simple. One person through the window at a time, with the rest fending off the swarm. At some point, it wouldn't be enough. Mason put the number at three. Two could never hold them back. Three might. So once they were down to three, that was it. No more would be getting out after that. It was game over, man, game over. And so, he coldly and emotionlessly decided which two people would die alongside him.
Again, the math was simple. Any other time, he would want Sarah at his side. But not now. Not with Mack in the equation. No, it had to be Hansen and Alejandra. Addison was good, but Ally was better.
“Becks! Go!” he shouted over the roar. “Sarah! William! Addison! Get the fuck out!”
But the point was moot, ultimately.
Mason caught the briefest glimpse of Inez pushing her son through the window to safety. But before she had the chance to climb through after him, a horrifying shriek filled the air, and Sk8rBoy William staggered backward, one hand clutching the side of his neck as a torrent of blood streamed down the front of his shirt.
Mason hadn't seen it, but one misstep was all it had taken. One single misstep. Whether it had been claws or teeth, the kid was now dead on his feet. He'd either bleed out, or the virus would take him. There was nothing anyone could do. That brave, frightened, stupid college kid was a dead man walking.
Despite the obvious, Inez howled, “William!” and rushed to his aid.
She should have known better. Hell, she did know better. But where she should have been making her own escape, that damned motherly instinct of hers sealed her fate every bit as tightly as the boy's.
Sarah made a grab for her, but then two alphas came at a rush and it was all she could do to fend them off. Addison did his best to come between her and the swarm, but with the loss of William's crossbow, the right flank suddenly fell – and with it, their last hope. The swarm poured through the breach in a wave and descended on William and Inez like a pack of rabid dogs.
Addison and Alejandra made a desperate attempt to save them both, but it did more inevitable harm than any theoretical good. With their momentary mutual lapse in judgment, the line collapsed entirely.
It wasn't their fault. Mason knew that. And anyway... how long could they have held on. Ten seconds? Five? Two? They were never going to win this fight no matter what they did. Hell, maybe it was even better this way. Get it over with. No more fighting. No more running. Just a quick and painful exit from this shit-hole of a world.
“Mace! Mace!”
It was Sarah, calling to him from somewhere behind. Her voice was shrill, frantic. He'd never heard her like that before, but then again, he'd never died with her before.
He wanted to call back to her, to tell her to save herself, and that it was alright that he was about to die, and to tell her a thousand more things. But he was fighting so hard just to delay the inevitable that he couldn't spare even that much energy.
And so he'd die without telling her all of those things.
And he'd die without telling Mack the thousands of things he wanted to say to her.
And
he'd die without telling Becks the thousands of things he should have told her all along.
Mason boiled down all of those thousands upon thousands of things into the most important words he would never get to say... and he spoke the words inside his head.
I love you all...
At last, Alejandra and Addison beat back the swarm enough to reach Inez, but by then, her shrieks had stopped, and it was no wonder. What those things had done to her and William in that handful of seconds, was simply awesome in its brutality. Flesh torn. Eyes gone. Abdomens ripped open. Guts spilled out.
“Mace! Mace!”
It was Sarah again, shouting at the tops of her lungs. As he turned and fought and turned and fought, he finally managed to catch the barest glimpse of her through the crush of bodies. She was trying to fight her way through to him, but a kukri could only do so much, even in Sarah's hands.
He took a swing at a pair of skulls to buy himself another second, until at last, he was able to gulp enough air to holler back to her, “Go!”
But still she fought, slashing and stabbing and hacking her way into the swarm. Mason summoned enough energy for one more word, knowing that single word would speak volumes.
“Mack...”
Sarah fought on for a few more futile seconds, but the point was finally reached when the implications of that single word came face to face with an impenetrable wall of teeth and claws. Mason saw her turn to fight her way back. He stole just enough quick little peeks through the fighting to know that she'd made it. But Sarah being Sarah, even as she climbed through the open window, she managed to save his ass one last time.
“Mace!” she howled, half in and half out of the window, whacking furiously at scores of claws just to be able to deliver the message, “Mace!” she cried. “The roof!”
Fuck! The roof! Idiot!
Fortunately, he didn't have to translate for the others. Addison pushed Alejandra ahead and followed at her heels, and Hansen took two more quick shots at a pair of skulls before joining them at a run.