Cat and the Belle

by Victor Cruz

  Fortunately, the bus was almost fully loaded, but unfortunately, Reggie would soon stick himself out of the bus and yell back towards Mason. He was pointing towards the end of the garage, where a large twelve-foot door made of steel blocked their exit. It was very similar to the common household garage that opened upwards and raised up to a trek overhead.

  “MASE! You have to open the garage door from the office! The bus can’t break through that door!”

  Fuck! Are you fucking kidding me! Mason thought they were about to ride off into the sunset.

  “The office!” Reggie pointed towards a small flight of stair that lead to the office. It was ten feet above the where he was standing and had windows overlooking the large space acting like a small guard post above the entire garage.

  At least its close. Mason thought in observation, realizing that he was nearest to the room out of the group.

  “I’m on it!” Mason ran towards the office that was up a small flight of stairs and near him. “Somebody covers those doors!”

  Kenneth, Colton and Reggie all positioned themselves in a defensive position waiting around the entrance. Their weapons leveled at the doors waiting for the soldiers that would be rushing through them at any moment. Their handguns were outmatched, but they had position and the element of surprise on their side.

  Maxson was slowly pulling the bus out of its cramped parking spot, while doing his best to take the tight turn around the corner. The younger brother attempted to park the bus in a way that would give the bus riders cover from any potential danger.

  By the time Maxson had straightened it out, the older Devereaux had reached the office. The door to the office was locked, but one hard thrusting boot from Mason broke the cheaply made door open.

  Wasting no time, he began looking for some way to open the large steel garage door blocking their escape. Mason had no idea what he was doing as he had never opened a garage door like this before. Before he found anything useful, the soldiers had entered the garage from the hallway. And with the soldiers, came an endless amount of automatic firepower.

  The first two soldiers who entered were completely filled with bullets from the three men defending the door. However, two more easily ran by and were able to dodge any semi-auto incoming projectiles. The surprised was gone while the soldier dug into position, but they were still outnumbered and surrounded.

  The soldiers fired their automatics for their own cover while they attempted to set up a perimeter around the entrance. Improvising whatever they could for shelter as they defended the area surrounding the door that they entered from.

  Gunfire exchanged briefly, before another soldier entered the garage from the door they defended. Like a robot, the soldier added to the perimeter that his two comrades had taken. With things now evened up, and their perimeter established, it was their time for the soldiers to hit the group back.

  “Get down, ya’ll!” Colton could be heard below, shouting from his cover. “Ah-Hell! There’s more of coming too!”

  While inside the office, Mason was frantically searching hearing Colton warning of their reinforcements coming. The military were unleashing a wild spray of bullets back over his dissatisfaction. Looking around, Mason searched for something; anything.

  He could barely hear himself think over the battle that echoed in the large cave-like chamber. It was in his search that he discovered the obvious. It was long yellow and black striped lever that would have taken someone to be blind to miss.

  That has to do something. Please. Do something.

  Grabbing the handle, Mason lifted it up to cause the electricity of the garage to start up with a loud charged hum. Lights that weren’t on before had now flickered to illuminate. The office was now much brighter than before from the incandescent lights hanging from above. A computer desk, filled with an array of electronics and monitors had lit up that Mason presumed were for security purposes.

  Mason could hear one of the soldiers shouting while still in the office above. “They’ve turned on the power! They’re trying to make a run for it! Don’t let them take our escape vehicles!”

  Escape vehicles? Did we beat them to it? Mason previous thoughts of the pipe dream had now become solidified.

  Mason took a quick glimpse out of the office. Inez was rushing out of the vehicle with her gun blazing towards the soldiers with his younger brother following behind her. Maxson held the military rifle that he had taken from the younger guard with the broken nose earlier and offered up some much-needed support.

  The two of them were able to jump up onto the loading dock’s ledge and duck behind a large set of boxes to the side of the assaulting military. With them flanking from the side, Mason firing down from above and the group clashing with them head on, the soldiers were surrounded at the entryway.

  “They’re stealing our transports!” A commanding officer yelled out to its subordinates in hopes to inspire them to keep shooting.

  One of the soldiers ran around the entry way to escape the barrage of gunfire from Maxson and Inez to take a kneeling position right under Mason’s view. They were reloading their rifle unaware of Mason standing over them. Mason fired three rounds into the soldier and attained a visual of a direct hit in the soldier’s armor while they fell backwards. Even after being shot, the soldier was unsure of what just happened and was still moving. Realizing that they had just been shot, the armed warrior instinctively looked up at Mason dumbfoundedly.

  That’s when Mason noticed that it was not a man, but a woman in battle gear, with the rifle clutched in her hands. Mason lowered his aim down at her, still unsure if his .45 was passing through her body armor.

  “Ahhh!”, She wailed while raising her loaded rifle towards him with a terrified look in her eyes.

  Mason already had the draw on her and simply only needed to squeeze the trigger. Left with no choice, Mason emptied the rest of his clip down and into her. Each time she was hit, her body jolted, before she stopped and dropped her rifle. She wasn’t dead quite yet, but there was no doubt in Mason’s mind that she didn’t have much time.

  It was the first woman and the first soldier that Mason had killed in combat. Two facts that he found no pleasure or pride in.

  Forgive me, God. Mason spoke to The Stranger upstairs that Catalina had tried to introduce to him. He could only hope that he wasn’t too busy listening to other, more deserving people.

  Mason heard the yelling coming from below from the armed opposition. They had seen him in the office and unleashed a wave of bullets at him. The lights above were shot out and the glass rained down on Mason from above. Pictures hanging on the wall, the monitors on the desk, and the glass windows of the office were all decimated in a matter of seconds.

  Mason began to reload his pistol with his last clip from cover, when he noticed something shining out of the corner of his eye. It was a bright, red light that deserved his attention and only revealed itself in the dark room after the soldiers shot out the lights. It was a big, circular button with two words written near it: Garage Door.

  Thank you! Mason said silently to The Stranger above.

  Mason was able to crawl over out of the line of danger from below and smashed his hand harshly down on the thick, red button. As soon as he did, a beeping sound began, and the clinking noise of the garage door opening shortly followed thereafter.

  “They’re opening the garage! Stop them!” A solider yelled out. By now, a few more had entered behind them. Not only replacing the handful of fallen comrades, but giving the established force enough rifles to give them numbers. The soldiers had now gained the advantage.

  Mason kept himself low as he stood to run straight towards the door. To save time, instead of using the stairs, Mason used the railing to flip himself over it at the waist, and hop down.

  Landing gracefully for such a large man, he shouted up towards the group “Get back to the bus!”

  A soldier peeked out around a pallet of boxes hearing Mason. He was instantly shot dead in the face, but a
nother soldier replaced him, and fired from cover.

  Fuck! Mason rolled behind cover, but continued making his way back to the bus. It was still facing the opening garage door that was on the North side of the building and was also the same direction that the gym was being attacked from outside.

  A woman’s voice yelled out from the bus; it was Belle-Lyanna.

  “Dad! Hurry! The dead! They’re coming!” The young woman shouted from the opened bus’s window.

  “Get back in the bus!” Kenneth said while doing his best to reload a gun that he was unaccustomed with.

  Their shouting caught Mason’s attention and he could see the dead were now approaching the opened garage entrance.

  The lights must be attracting them.

  Reggie and Colton had fallen back and were almost at the bus as Mason made his way to Kenneth. “Cmon Kenneth! We have to go!”

  A soldier aimed at the bus and started to shoot towards the window Belle-Lyanna had shouted from.

  “That’s my daughter you asshole!” Kenneth stood up and shot the soldier handful of times, killing him.

  “Mason! C’mon! We’ll cover you!” Maxson shouted from ahead. He was laying very light suppressing fire, trying his best to conserve the little ammo he had left.

  Colton, Reggie, Inez and Maxson were now having to focus on defending themselves from two sides. On their side, the dead were pouring into the garage and on the opposite end, where Mason was, they shot at the soldiers. It was pure chaos and Mason was in the middle of it all.

  Maxson jumped down from the height of the ledge, to the ground level to meet the invading dead that were walking inside. Instead of using his ammo, he resorted to bludgeoning the dead with the stock of the rifle.

  “Get your ass in that bus, little brother!” Mason yelled up to him. He knew he was becoming more of a liability than an asset to group that held the two people he held most dear. Even as big as his little brother was, he was losing ground as the swarm that would overtake him with their sheer numbers.

  “Get in, get in! There is too many of them!” The younger Devereaux realized early enough to shout to the rest of the group defending the bus.

  “I’m outta’ ammo!” Shouted Colton.

  “Me too!” Inez said as she began to depart from her defensive position and make her way back to the bus.

  “Fuck!” Reggie said as he tried to fire his empty weapon, and retreated with the rest of them.

  Mason was now having to leave Kenneth, who was still preoccupied shooting at another soldier that had taken aim at the bus.

  Colton was on the bus. Inez was on the bus. Reggie too. Maxson stood outside of the bus and was still fighting the dead and keeping them at bay long enough for Mason to catch up.

  The entire garage had soon become overrun by the flesh-eating dead. Mason knew time was expiring, but couldn’t just leave his neighbor without warning. “Kenneth! C’mon! Let’s go! We have to go! Time to get the hell outta’ Dodge!!”

  But the father didn’t hear him as he attacked those who attacked the vehicle that held his daughter. He had now taken the attention of the entire opposing force, as they locked in on him.

  G-damnit! Kenneth! Mason turned and left him behind. His distraction would allow Mason just enough time to head into the oncoming wave of dead that separated him from the bus and their eventual escape.

  “Dad! Nooo!” The daughter cried over the lethal sounds of rifles blaring.

  It broke Mason’s heart.

  The father, Kenneth Banks, soon fell to his knees, bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. He wasn’t going to make it to the bus, but he raised the pistol in his hand in one final act of defiance. An act that would buy Mason and the group a few extra precious seconds.

  Mason only heard the gunshots from behind, but continued through obstacle course of the dead that separated him and the bus. Blindly firing his pistol backwards at the soldiers as he weaved through the dead. When the wave of flesh-eaters became thicker Mason would be forced to expend his final two rounds from his pistol to clear a path for himself.

  No way to cover my ass now. Mason would now be relying on his athleticism and luck.

  The younger brother, Maxson, was the last one to enter the bus. As he entered, Catalina was attempting to exit in an attempt to rescue her husband. Unable to pass, due to Maxson. He had grabbed her grabbed Catalina and kept her on their escape vehicle.

  “Mason!” Catalina cried.

  Maxson pushed her back into the bus and followed her inside.

  Thank you, brother…

  Mason’s relief was short-lived with bullets flying by. He combated rolled through a few corpses that had lunged at him, and sidestepped the one that grabbed at him as he stood. The entire time he tried to swim through all of the lifeless, but moving bodies while still keeping himself low to duck the soldiers shooting at him from behind.

  Each creature that Mason passed acted as a shield against the pursuing bullets, but it was becoming more difficult to get around the cannibal corpses that packed the tight confines of the garage. Using the handle of the pistol, he began smashing the bottom of it into lunging creature’s forehead.

  If I can’t get around, then I’ll go through! Mason raged.

  The bus had now been engulfed by the dead standing around it and beating against it. They were starting to make the bus hobble back and forth. Meanwhile, Maxson stood at front of the big yellow bus and was now on it. Standing at the front entrance of the vehicle, the younger brother was smacking down the dead with his rifle to keep them off.

  “C’mon! You’re almost there!” Maxson yelled back at him from the bus. “We’re not going to leave you behind!”

  His brother’s words filled Mason with a new found hope as he faced the impossible task of killing off the dead around him. One, after another, he punched, booted and hip-tossed uncountable amounts of corpses to the ground leaving a trail on the ground. His endurance was slowing and his size and athleticism could only take Mason so far. It was pure luck that he had gotten this far.

  A bullet caught Mason in the back of the thigh, only to be followed by a second in the back of the kneecap of the same leg.

  But luck runs out. Mason could almost hear his father saying it to him; the asshole.

  He stumbled, and Mason fell forward to the ground with the dead around and rapidly encroaching. He jumped up on his good leg, and began to hop on one leg towards the bus, doing his best to avoid the outstretched corpses’ hands that were looking to eat his flesh.

  However, one grabbed him and caught him off balance. Wrestling it away only gave enough time for a second and third stiff bodied creature grab him. Clenching roughly into him with their abnormally strong and cold hands, they pinned him still. The feeling of teeth sinking into his shoulder and arm was felt before the flesh was ripped off his body like band aids.

  Mason yelled out in pain. “Ahhh!”

  “MASON!” Catalina yelled out. She stood in the back of the bus and was unlatching the rear door to open it.

  “Brother!” Maxson roared. “NOOOO!”

  Mason’s pain from the biting only enraged him and he found the strength to stand on both of his feet; injured and uninjured alike. Prying himself from the creature’s teeth and allowing his ripping flesh to abandon the rest of his body. He wasn’t running anymore.

  “It’s over for me! Go!” Mason stood still to physically show them that his path ended here.

  “No!” Maxson and Catalina both responded in unison.

  “C’mon baby! Please!” Catalina begged through the now opened vehicle’s door. She was using the bottom of her shoe to kick down at the creatures that were reaching up towards her. Unselfishly, she attempted to coax her husband, “You’ll be okay! I promise!”

  “We’re not leaving you! I don’t care about the bite! We’ll figure it out!” Maxson tried to persuade him.

  If I keep running, they’ll wait. And if they wait, we all die.

  “Go Maxson! NOW!” Mason’s fist cras
hed into one of the lunging corpses while he gave him their final orders to abandon him.

  One by one, Mason bravely fought off the incoming creatures with everything that he could muster. His arms became heavy, and he was losing his balance more frequently, but he dug deep to keep fighting.

  Leave nothing on the court, Mason and Maxson would often say to one another during their basketball days.

  The soldiers were unintentionally helping him as they tried to gun him down allowing him to fight longer. With enough bullets, they managed to down the wall dead surrounding Mason. One of their targeted rounds hit Mason in his back and passed completely through his front abdomen.

  Mason could see ahead, that it was the tough old man in the cowboy hat from earlier that had taken ahold of the bull of a bus by its steering wheeled horns.

  Good job, old man. Mason figured he was the only one with enough sense to drive off.

  The sound of the tires beginning to roll, leaving him to his inevitable fate, was music to Mason’s ears. A final gift to him, that his death wouldn’t be in vain.

  Over the beautiful music, an angel sang out and Catalina called out to him over the chaos.

  “I will always love you Mason Deveraux!”

  “And I love you, Cat… and I will always be with you!” Mason courageously shouted back to her with the last of his energy. The bus underwent hauling itself out of the garage and into the warzone that was still going on outside.

  Watching Catalina, Mason finally stopped his fighting. It was time for Mason to finally get some rest.

  Look away, Cat.

  Catalina knew it would be the last time she would see Mason and she couldn’t force herself to do it. Inez was there for her to physically pull her away from the opened back door. She then closed it behind them both to shield her sister from the horror she would have witnessed otherwise.

  She will always have her sister to protect her. Mason found comfort.