by Noah Porter
Lily grinned at him, “Thank you, Mason. Come on, Seth.”
“Seth? Really? And here I thought you had better taste.” Neither Lily nor Seth could tell who the last remark was directed at.
Lily responded, “Well, it could have been you if you would ever accept any of my advances.”
Mason seemed to be relaxing, returning to his more normal, indifferent, and critical self, “Not going to happen. I’m afraid your body has way too many miles on it for my tastes, and not quality miles. Now, if you guys would be so kind as to draw out any other simple minded couples and make your way to the outdoors that way,” he said, pointing to the dining area. “Don’t try to help because at this point you won’t be any, but do watch your step because we’ve been hard at work out here.”
The pair knocked on the other doors. Several people emerged, hastily getting dressed and rushing toward the doors. Lily noted with a look of mirth that Karen had been in one of the bathrooms, although she was fully dressed. With some annoyance, Lily moved on, not getting a chance to see who had been in there with Karen. One thing was certain; it was going to be a lot more interesting if they all survived this.
The others pushed forward just enough to reach all of the doors on their floor. When Paige tried to push the corpses away from the brewery door, Mason stepped forward, “No. We have done what we can, it’s time to leave.”
Paige tried to push past him, “Oh please, you just don’t want to save them because you blame them for this.”
Paige was unable to budge him or to get around him. He pointed to the door, “Who needs blame? The evidence is disappearing down the throats of a few of these creeps right now.” They could see what was left of Stan and a couple of his friends being devoured outside of the doors.
Ben stared at the door, “Why in God’s name would they go outside?”
Mason was quick to answer. “Why do you people keep asking these inane questions? Does it really matter why? Maybe they were going to smoke a joint. Maybe they were too drunk to know the difference between the outside door and the bathroom. How the HELL should I know, and what the HELL does it matter now. Why it happened doesn’t matter. What matters is that it IS happening now. It’s time to make decisions, not ponder history. I say we cannot save the people downstairs, so it is time to retreat.”
They had never heard Mason angry before. He had always been so calm and collected; this seemed a serious breach of his personality. The fact that he was swearing made their feet do as he directed, despite their wanting to stay and protest. Mason turned and began walking back down the hall.
Only Asher did not realize the gravity of the change. “We can’t just leave the people downstairs to their fate!”
Mason turned on his heels, making an eerie noise that reverberated against the close walls. With his black bag strapped tightly against him and a light in his eyes, Mason looked like Death personified, “You mean you WON’T leave them to their fate, not CAN’T. If you WANT to throw your life away rushing down there, be my guest. I am not going to go charging into a cramped space with zombies on three sides.” He turned back around and was almost to the dinning area.
“You coward!” Asher shouted and he headed down the stairs, gun drawn.
Dylan threw his arm out before anyone could follow. Dylan shouted, “What do you mean three sides? It’s stairs. There’s only up and down.”
Mason stopped just before reaching the corner into the dining area. His face was a mask without emotion, “How many of these things have we knocked over? How many do you think are sprawled out on the stairs? Upstairs, downstairs, and underfoot.” With that he rounded the corner and disappeared from view.
They heard a gunshot and a scream not too far down the stairs, and they knew it must have been Asher. Dylan began stepping back, “Mason’s right. We don’t know this place and there is no way to fight zombies in front, behind, and under us. We saved the people up here - we did what we could. We have to leave now.”
They agreed, turned and ran for the door, the creatures slowly making their way back down the hall behind them.
*****
Once outside and a safe distance away from the carnage of the brewery, the group circled round to take stock of the survivors. Twenty-three people had made it out of the brewery, roughly half of the people who had been inside. They had made their way down on the ground under the patio and fought their way out of the zombies that milled around trying to find the source of the noise. For the most part, they had made it safely. Ashley had hurt her ankle reaching the ground. Andrew had carried her as they fled the area seeking somewhere away from the noise. Other than that, they were all in one piece.
Connie told them of a building a little distance away that had been used largely for government work, so it was pretty well protected, with security on all of the floors. The group agreed that it sounded like their best bet. Dylan, Kyle, Ben, Phillip, and Lily took the front position, quietly taking down any undead on the way to the building. Seth and Maddy took one side of the group while Jackson and Claire took the other, making sure that everyone stayed together. Paige and Mason brought up the rear, taking down any zombies that had tried to follow the fleeing noise.
When they reached the government building, they found the parking lots in complete disarray. Vehicles were crashed, blocking most of the ways out, but there was no sign of the people who had been driving them. The survivors finally reached the doors to the entrance of the building, but they were security coded so that no one could get in.
“Great. None of us has a badge,” Seth said.
Connie pointed at all of the cars around them, “Don’t tell me you think we have no chance of finding a badge.”
Seth shook his head, “We don’t even know if the locks are going to work now. I mean how much can the technology hold up after all of this?” He tried one of the doors - it barely moved under the pressure. He looked around, resigned to the fact that it was their only choice. “Ok, why don’t a few of you go look through the cars to see if you can find a badge or security key.”
Dylan spoke up, “We’ll need to split up in groups and make sure there is always at least one person keeping a look out while the others break in.”
Seth nodded, not something he would have thought about. “Lily, do you think I could borrow some of your skills? I’m going to be able to handle a lot of this, but there are some things that you will probably be faster at breaking.”
“Of course,” Lily stepped forward, “What do you need me to do?”
“First, could you get this plate off?” Seth pointed at one of the badge readers hidden on the side. “It looks like the easier one to crack.”
Lily knelt down next to the badge reader. She, like most of the group, was surprised by Seth’s sudden assertive behavior. Perhaps he was trying to distract himself from what had just happened, especially to both of his friends, who had been downstairs. Or maybe this was how he was when it came to things he knew – assertive and in control. Technology was definitely his area, and the group was glad that he was finally stepping up to contribute.
Dylan put his hand on Lily’s arm before she got started. “What if we find a badge and you guys have already disabled the reader? We won’t be able to get in then.”
Seth pointed at a couple other places around the doors, “There are multiple readers on this door alone. If you check out some of the other doors at other entrances, you’ll find that most of them will have at least one reader. If you find a badge, we can use it on any of the other readers. One disabled reader won’t harm the rest of the system.”
Dylan nodded. As the two worked on getting into the building, Dylan split volunteers into teams to search the cars. Three to a team. The rest were to stay at the doors and keep watch. As the trios moved out to the cars, they could hear a few of the corpses moving around out in the parking lots.
Ben looked around, “Man, they should be heading to the damn brewery, not hanging around here. We’re never going to get a break
.”
Kyle muttered beside him, “Tell us about it. We were supposed to be able to sleep soundly tonight without worrying about those damn things. Now we are wading through this shit looking for a damn needle in a haystack.”
Paige simply said, “Come on guys, let’s focus. The sooner we find a badge, the sooner we can get inside. We might even find a nice space where we feel safe enough to sleep. Keep your mind on the task, so that we can get inside.”
Both men agreed, and they moved in silence among the cars in the parking lot across the street.
Dylan, Phillip, and Seth quickly made their way to the other side of the same parking lot. None of them spoke as they slipped into the darkness furthest from the building.
Jackson, Claire, and Mason headed to the parking lot on the other side of the building. It was roughly the same size as the one across the street, but it was sloped, making it more difficult to see the surroundings. Andrew jogged up to them, having left Ashley with Karen to see what could be done for her ankle.
He was about to greet them when Mason clamped a hand over his mouth. He tapped a finger on Andrew’s head, then moved his hand to point at a couple of still figures less than 50 feet away. Andrew put his hand over Mason’s to signal that he understood he needed to be quiet. Jackson and Claire were watching the figures, trusting Mason to handle it as he said he would. Andrew was the only one facing Mason as he made some very subtle movements.
Andrew focused, looking hard to see if he could tell what Mason was doing. The mystery man was working with his bag. Seconds later Mason’s hands emerged with two shiny objects, not very long, but definitely pointed and nasty looking. Andrew had suspected what the bag held for a while, now he was certain – it was Mason’s weapons cache.
Mason worked his way forward. Without a sound he drew his arms back and drove them forward, plunging two long daggers into the skulls. Each creature let out a low moan. Mason had driven the daggers into their skulls in such a way as to allow him to keep them standing instead of collapsing from the blows, and then he slowly lowered the corpses. He laid the bodies down gently on the ground, and then signaled his team to move forward. Andrew pulled out his own Bowie knife and moved quickly up to Mason’s side. The giant man was not about to let someone else have all of the fun.
All of them were suddenly stopped by the sound of glass being smashed and a car alarm going off. One of the other teams had broken into the car to take a badge sitting on the seat, abandoned with the car. They all hurried to the source to find Gordon, Connie, and Austin arguing over what had happened. Mason walked up to Gordon, who was holding the badge, drew back his fist, and punched Gordon in the face. Gordon hit the ground hard, landing in the broken glass. He was too shocked to scream, but it would not take long for the pain to register.
“I’ve just about had it with the stupidity of you people,” Mason hissed at him. “If I would have known that I was leaving the city with such simple-minded characters, I would have stayed put and waited for another group who had a much better grasp of the situation.” Mason stalked off into the night, clearly not heading for the door.
Dylan reached down and helped Gordon up, being careful not to touch any of the glass shards now in his hands. “We need to get you inside and get you cleaned up.” The siblings made to follow Mason, but Dylan’s voice stopped them. “Don’t.”
“You can’t let a member of the party just leave like that. He’s in serious danger,” Claire seethed. “I’m not going to let him go wandering off like this.”
Dylan turned and gave her his full attention, “If that man had not come with us, most of us would not still be alive. He has saved all of us at least once, most of us several times. Mason is not a man who gets angry easily. In fact, none of us have ever seen him physically attack another member of the group. Without him, we are the ones in danger.” Claire began to argue, but Dylan held up his hand. “If he needs to go cool off, you will let him.”
“And what if he has left us for good?” Andrew was beginning to realize just how important Mason had been to their trip out of Portland and to the survival of the group. He was realizing just how right Dylan was, and he did not like the idea of losing Mason. Of course Mason could be difficult, nearly impossible sometimes, and he really seemed to love being critical of Andrew’s plan, but Andrew had always taken it in stride, thinking that proof of Mason’s skills was in their great survival numbers. He felt certain it would pay off in the end, so he had just laughed off Mason’s criticisms. They had developed an odd relationship where Mason never had anything nice to say and Andrew never took anything personally. Over time Andrew became Mason’s verbal punching bag. He took the extra insults to help protect the team, and he knew Mason was aware. Whenever Mason was upset, Andrew generally took the brunt of the insults. Mason knew Andrew could handle it as long as things were going well, and that gave Andrew time to pause. What did it mean now? Was this simply Mason being too angry to vent, or did it mean something else, something more dangerous for the group?
Dylan shook his head. “I don’t think he is gone for good, just for now. Right now, we need to focus on getting inside. If Mason wants to join us, he will.”
Gordon was standing now, looking at his hands, “Like hell he will.”
Seth grabbed him by the front of the shirt, “Come on, we have to get this to the right people.”
Ben added, “Preferably before you get us killed, genius. Thanks.”
They could see zombies beginning to come down the street from both directions. Others in the parking lot were making their way to the car and the noise. The teams split up to make it easier to maneuver through the cars.
When they reached the doors, they were greeted with questions and worried looks.
Dylan handed Seth the badge. “We got this. The hard way.”
One of the people by the door asked, “Where’s Mason?”
“He’s just gone to check on a few things,” Paige said. She wasn’t about to let this group know what had happened. Phillip gave her an inquiring look but did not argue with her. Several of the others who knew what had happened simply kept quiet and looked at their feet.
Lily looked at the group, “So who is the latest reigning mental reject?” Her hands were on her hips and she was clearly unhappy that they were again rushing things because of something that should have been easily avoided. “Seriously, who’s the idiot who thought that breaking into a car was a good idea for getting away from these bastards?”
Gordon looked at her, “I did it. Sorry if we don’t all have your criminal background so that we can break into things silently now.”
She pointed at his eye, already showing signs of turning black. Blood was coming out of his nose, “Oh, right. You are also missing the kind of skills required to know when you are being an ass and making life miserable. You missed that one too, huh.” She moved up close to his ear, so only he could hear, and whispered, “Remind me to thank Mason when I see him again. He’s just really making my night.”
Gordon pushed her away, then cried out as several of the shards were pressed further into his hands. Karen came and directed him to the side. She began pulling glass out of his hands and tried to stop some of the bleeding.
Seth ran the badge in front of the reader. Nothing. He swiped it several more times, with no success, and then went to one of the other readers to see if it would work. After trying three other readers, he felt that he had verified that the system did not work anymore. Seth began working as quickly as he could to bypass the code to get inside. The more proactive people began to make a circle around the others in the group, closing ranks in preparation for the zombies stumbling toward them.
Lily bent down next to Seth, “How much longer do you think, tiger?” She whispered it in his ear.
He blushed, “I-I don’t know. I didn’t expect to be working under this much pressure. It’s distracting.”
She patted him on the shoulder, “There is no need to rush. We will keep everyone safe while yo
u find us a way inside. I know you are going to do it, I’m just wondering if I should be hedging bets to see if anyone will give you odds against my ability to break into a complex lock. Then all we would need is a complex lock. You’ve got some skill with that thing.”
Seth blushed again, “It pretty simple really. Not like the things you do. Give me two more minutes and we’ll be inside.”
Lily stepped back and watched Seth as he fumbled with the lock. ‘This has to work’, Lily thought to herself, ‘And Mason has to come back to us. Or we are in even bigger trouble than we can even imagine…’
~ Volume Four – Columbus Road ~
December
Claire finished ascending the stairs to the top floor. It was only a matter of time before a couple of the others realized where Mason went, and she wanted a chance to talk to him alone. She had wanted to talk to him for a while, but there had never been a decent opportunity. The group had been either fighting or running since Hood River, with not much time for anything else. Now she had her chance and she was beginning to lose her nerve because she felt she already knew what his reaction would be. Then again, she could be very wrong. Mason was never predictable, and he was so seldom serious she couldn’t imagine him being pleased with what she had to say. The man did not need any type of praise, sympathy, or thanks, which was odd for someone who was so entirely critical of others.
