by Olah, Jeff
“Brian, it’s good to see you again, although you look like hell. Let’s get through this quick and get you all inside.”
“My people have been through quite a bit. The last few weeks have been the worst of it all… We lost two more this morning. It’s really bad out there, and just getting worse every day.”
He couldn’t put words to what he felt seeing this human skeleton, who’d once been the toughest human he knew. “I’m sorry to have to put you and your people through this, but we’ve had a few bad days of our own.”
“I understand,” Brian said. “We’re pretty beat down, although my group knows your plans and we won’t hold you up. We’ll be ready to push on by tomorrow morning, and are thankful you waited for us.”
“I think we may be able to wait a few more days. We’re anxious to get off this mountain, although another day or two won’t make a difference.”
Brian leaned in and offered his hand. “Thank you, Mason.”
The men shook hands and Brian moved off. He sat in the shade offered by Building Two and watched as the rest of his people entered the courtyard.
Over the next thirty minutes, Mason and Savannah finished guiding their new friends into the courtyard and gave them the lay of the land, the safe zones, and the areas to be avoided. They were introduced to Dr. Lockwood and the others.
By nightfall, every one of their sixteen new friends was given a hot meal, a warm shower, and for the first night in months, a safe place to rest their heads.
Just past midnight, Mason walked the halls. Noticing the dimmed lights of The Cage, he made his way out of the lounge and into the room as Lockwood packed away the last of his equipment. “So Doc, what are the chances we pull this off?”
Lockwood finished filling the cardboard box and set it next to him on the table. “Are you referring to getting all twenty-three of us to the shore, or us not killing one another in the process?”
“Both… either, hell I don’t know.”
“At this point we’re all out of options. Tomorrow is a new day and only time will tell what will become of this group.”
165
As the sun reached out over the treetops and filtered in through the higher elevations, the courtyard was already buzzing with activity. Temperatures dropping every other day as fall approached its end, the last morning at Blackmore would prove a mixed bag of emotions.
Mason, Randy, and Brian loaded the delivery truck. The obvious choice would be to fill it with weapons as this would be the lead vehicle out of the area, although this would also be the vehicle transporting the most important person still alive at Blackmore.
Mason and Dr. Lockwood carefully loaded and secured his equipment into the cargo area before speaking with the six men riding with them. “Okay,” Mason said. “These ten boxes, along with the equipment strapped to the walls, are the most important things making this trip… aside from Dr. Lockwood himself. No matter what else happens, this man and his work are our top priority. Protect them with your life.”
Six vehicles waited for the gates to part as Sean stepped out of Building One for the final time. With his last trip, he carried the remaining computer equipment and placed the box carefully into the SUV. “Mason?” he said. “Anyone know where Mason—”
“Over here,” Mason called from the rear of the delivery truck as he finished going over last-minute details with Randy and Brian.
Weaving his way through the vehicles, Sean twitched as he ran. “Mason… We need to also secure the SUV. It’s carrying all the computer equipment and all of my dad’s archived folders.”
Mason stood and walked back to the SUV, his arm over Sean’s shoulder. “I’m sending your sister, Randy, and two others to ride with you. They’ll be armed, as I imagine everyone else will be. No need to worry… wait you’re not worried are you?”
“If Randy’s riding with us, I’m good.”
“Wow, you’re easy. I thought you’d give me trouble with having your sister and Randy in the same vehicle.”
“Nope,” Sean said. “Megan will be driving and just having Randy in the back seat with me will be enough.”
“Alright, you ready to leave?”
“Yep, I’ve been ready for the last few months. It’ll be good to get back home. How soon do you think we’ll make it?”
“Brian says the roads were pretty bad. Our goal is to be there before the sun goes down.”
Mason stood before the twenty-two individuals. He’d previously explained the plans for moving their home base away from Blackmore, to the less conspicuous beach home formerly occupied by Dr. Lockwood and his children. While not everyone agreed that leaving the seemingly secure mountaintop location was the right decision, they packed away their things and fell into line.
“I’ll keep this short… we aren’t running,” Mason said. “We are not victims and we will no longer act that way. As we all know, there are no more safe places to hide and very few people left that we can trust. This facility has problems that cannot be fixed. The food supply is perishable and won’t last through the winter and with the temps dropping every day, we need a new home.”
He waved Brian forward and continued. “As we talked about last night, we are headed to the coast. Our home base will be feet from the water and as such, an ocean full of fish at our disposal. It won’t be easy securing the area, although once we take control, it will be ours. How long we stay and flourish will be up to everyone here today.”
Mason thanked the group and left Brian to organize their departure. “Give me five minutes,” he said before moving off toward the final resting place of his family. As the others boarded their vehicles and started toward the gate, he walked to the still frosted patch of grass and knelt next to the four small wooden markers.
He didn’t say a word. He closed his eyes and only wanted the sounds of their voices to come back, for the images of their past life to wash over him. He thought of his wife, his son, his father-in-law, and his friend more times per day than was probably healthy. Although as the days turned to weeks and weeks to months, their faces were harder to capture, the memories more distant with each recollection.
He pulled back a small patch of grass and scooped a handful of dirt from the wet soil. Standing, he filled his right front pocket and said goodbye before pausing and moving back to the caravan.
Few Feeders walked the area as the six vehicles moved out. Mason and Savannah shared the rear area of the delivery truck with Lockwood as Brian sat behind the wheel. They were followed closely by the three packed cars, the SUV, and then the truck, each crossing the gate and turning out onto the single lane road.
With the road only having been traversed a few times in the last year, the deep green forest grew in from either side. The path was now only slightly wider than the vehicles moving through. Branches reached out and slapped their fenders, doors, and wheel wells. “I hate this part,” Brian said. “Not much visibility on either side.”
Moving to the passenger seat, Mason added an extra set of eyes. “You guys run into any problems heading up here?”
“Not on this road, but the valley is a mess.” Describing the many unnerving encounters they faced while finding their way into the area, Brian noted a separate route. One that would still lead to their beachside destination, and also avoid the chaotic urban areas. “We can’t go back the way we came. It may take us an extra few hours, although the only other option is to drive straight through the largest part of the city.”
His attention on a small group of slow moving Feeders out the passenger window, Mason said, “I think I’ll leave this one up to you. None of us have been beyond the gates in months and an extra hour or two added to our trip won’t mean too much, especially if we don’t make it.”
They continued down the mountain, only rarely chancing across a random group of Feeders every few miles, most of which were able to be avoided or pushed out of the road. The caravan remained tight through the lower elevations and once out onto paved highway, they beg
an to gain speed.
Brian slowed the truck as they approached the intersection. Head West, through the main areas of infection and take their chances with the shorter route, or continue North and add the extra time and mileage to their trip. “Mason, you sure you’re good with this?”
“I don’t think we can take a chance, especially with the all these vehicles. We have to stay together. It’s our only shot.”
166
The rural two lane road proved the better choice, or so they thought. They hadn’t run across a single soul in the last two hours, dead or otherwise. The air dry and the blistering winds pushing through the emaciated farmlands, the group of six vehicles kicked up a trail of dust that eliminated any chance they’d be followed from the rear.
From the cargo area, Savannah leaned in between the two front seats. “So, this is pretty boring. How much longer we got on this road anyway?”
A grin sliding across his face, Brian pointed at the horizon. “Probably another hour before we hit the main highway again. See the tops of those buildings in the distance?”
“Yeah?”
“We’re racing the sun to that point.” he said. “From there we only have about twenty minutes to the coast… that is if we don’t run into any trouble.”
“Okay, but I’m gonna have to pee at some point.”
Shaking his head, Mason said, “We’re not stopping, not for anything.”
“Who died and left you—” Savannah closed her eyes and shook her head. The words felt wrong even as she was saying them. Quickly and without much thought, she forced a change of subject. “So, you two knew each other in a past life?”
Mason smiled, “Yep, we go way back… I mean way back.”
Savannah took a long look at each man. “Oh really, I’d love to hear this.”
Shifting in his seat, Brian feigned interest in the approaching slope. “Once we get to the top of this incline, we should have a pretty good view into the city.”
Savannah turned from Brian to Mason. “Okay, I guess he’s not comfortable with this. How about you? You just gonna leave me hanging, or is it some deep dark secret that no one is supposed to know about?” Although uncomfortable, she found herself unable to stop talking. “I’ll understand if the story begins with, this one time in college—”
“Brian, you ok with this?” Mason asked.
“Sure… are you?”
Pausing for a moment, Mason squinted through the sun reflecting off the dash. “Brian dated April before I did.”
She waited for him to continue and when he didn’t, Savannah asked, “Okay, so what’s the big deal?”
“It really isn’t a big deal,” Mason said. “Brian and I actually became friends at one point… that was until her father got involved.”
“April’s dad? What did he have to do with it?”
Brian’s grip on the steering wheel loosened as he relaxed into the seat. “Major Daniels and I were friends before I met April. I’d known him for years as my father served overseas with him. He sort of forced April and I together. She never wanted it and it ended pretty quickly.”
“Yeah,” Savannah said. “Then what?”
“After a few awkward run-ins with Mason, especially at the Daniels house, I finally got the nerve to explain to the Major that it just wasn’t going to work. He insisted I keep in contact with him over the years and from what I understand he continued to make life hell for Mason and April.”
“You kept in touch with April’s dad all this time?”
“Just by phone,” Brian said. “And he made sure I had every possible number to reach him, even at Blackmore.”
“That’s how you found us?”
“Well, sort of. Our group found a satellite phone while scavenging for food in a burned out communications building. Luckily we were able to get it charged and I still carried every single one of the Major’s numbers with me. I figured he’d know what to do.”
Easing the stiffness out of his shoulders, Mason asked, “How long were you trying to reach us?”
“It took us some time to get it working, although once we did, that boy Sean picked up on the third call.”
Miles in the distance, the city sat lifeless. The sun skipping off the desolate highway, the aimless dust clouds obstructing where the road ended, they pushed on.
Beginning their descent, Brian again checked his mirrors and counted the vehicles, before turning his attention back to the horizon. “There it is… just gotta make it through that damned city. Cross your fingers.”
Sitting forward, Mason focused his attention out the right side of the truck. “You guys seeing this?”
“Oh no,” Savannah said. “We have to do something.”
One hundred yards ahead, its hood raised to the sky, the sport utility vehicle poured white smoke into the light breeze and sat motionless along the side of the road. Processing the scene as they continued forward, Mason followed the light dust trail to its origin.
Three children, none above the age of middle school, ran from what appeared to be no less than fifteen Feeders. With each stride, the trio lost ground to their pursuers and the youngest was less than thirty seconds from being overcome.
Fifty yards behind lay what appeared to be the lone adult and a pair of Feeders still having their way with the body.
Closing in on the stalled vehicle, he had yet to slow, even with the others already making their way to the shoulder. “We cannot help them,” Brian said. “It’s too late.”
“Brian,” Mason said. “We are stopping. Those kids don’t have another minute.”
“It’s not going to matter whether we stop or not, they’re not going to make it. We stop and we die, I’ve already buried enough of these people. We’re moving through.”
Moving back to the rear cabin, Savannah reached for a pistol, handed it to Mason and grabbed a second one for herself. She motioned to the door and Mason nodded.
His right hand gripping the door handle, Mason said, “Stop the truck Brian. I’m getting out either way.” He checked the mirrors again and could see that Randy had already exited the SUV and was on foot toward the children.
Mason pushed the door open, now focused on the highway passing under his feet and attempted to locate a forgiving place to land.
167
Mason was fading. In the weeks and months after losing his wife and son, he’d changed. He needed to, he had to. Not only because he’d killed two men in the last attack on Blackmore, but because he’d slowly become one of them. He’d become a lesser version of himself, someone that used the circumstances of this new world to justify their deplorable acts against one another. This change had to happen. He would be no good to his new family if he didn’t.
The questions came in moments where the world was quiet. How would April have reacted had she witnessed him take another man’s life? Would Justin have still looked up to him, knowing he shot the teenage boy? Mason knew the answers.
Four months ago, Sean handed him the sat phone and the voice on the opposite end needed help. The chance to stop his immoral descent had presented itself in the form of an acquaintance from years gone by; Mason didn’t hesitate, although at what cost?
Mason knowingly used Brian and his group as a new beginning. This was a chance to forget the past and become who they needed him to be. He would also allow Lockwood to believe that it was his idea to leave Blackmore, when no one on that mountain needed to find a way out more than he.
Although appearing sympathetic, his actions were little more than a misguided attempt at relieving his own escalating guilt. Efforts at wiping clean his conscience at the expense of others. Although, doing these things didn’t make him feel any better, just more like a fraud.
He was going to help those children, even if it was the last thing he ever did. His moral compass had been spinning for far too long. He was going to reset it… even if it killed him in the process.
Beginning to step out, he turned back one last time as Brian placed his right
foot on the brake. Mason jumped out as the truck slowed and he hit the asphalt in a dead sprint. To his right and further into the dusty field, Randy was making his way through the thick crowd of Feeders. Close behind him were three of Brian’s men, each trailing the one in front by ten yards.
Pulling to the side and stopping near the broke down SUV, Brian set the truck in park and looked into the rear cabin. “Stay here, lock the doors and don’t get out.”
“Got it,” Savannah said as she watched Brian hop out and start in the direction of the others. She turned to Lockwood, handed him her gun and grabbed one of the rifles. She moved to the cab and sat with the window rolled down in the passenger seat. Through the scope, she saw Mason making up ground on Randy and the others.
He moved faster through the deep dried brush and approached the horde from behind. Past one slow moving Feeder, around another, Mason pushed on with his focus set on the three children, now twenty-five yards ahead. The two young boys, possibly twins, were outrunning their older sister, and as they accelerated, they began to move in opposite directions.
The girl, who was limping as she ran, slowed with each new step. As Mason lowered his shoulder and pushed himself through the crowd, he felt hands on his back and arms. Stumbling as he forced his way to the front, Mason ran dead center into the back of one of the beasts leading the way.
He twisted left, continued running, and leapt over a fallen Feeder. As the creature reached for him, it made contact with Mason’s left arm, knocking free his weapon.
