Fury Rising (39 page)

              “Are you okay?”

              “No,” she said. “Leon’s dead. I killed him. And there’s a bomb. It’s going to bring down the entire building in fifteen minutes.” She looked at her watch for the millionth time. “Make that fourteen minutes. We have to get out of here.”

              “What? Leon’s dead?”

              “Yeah, I killed him. Keep up.”

              She grabbed Mason’s hand and dragged him back down the last few steps. How many people were still inside and would they have time to get them out? She needed to get back out to the boat and see whom Clementine managed to round up. They didn’t have much time.

              “We have fifteen minutes,” she said. “Maybe less. I don’t know how far away we should be. The kids are on the boat. Come on, Mason. We have to hurry.”

              “Where’s the bomb?” Mason reached the fire doors before her and swung them both open, checking to make sure they weren’t about to be ambushed. The lobby was still empty, but it no longer surprised her. Of course the Baggers had made themselves scarce. They knew what was coming. They were probably blocks away by now, running for cover, more than happy to leave the humans behind to be swallowed up by all the ferals.

              “It’s in the kitchen, but don’t bother,” she said. “Unless you know how to disarm it, it’s not worth looking at.” She paused and glared at him. “Yes, it’s real. And no, you have no idea how to stop it. Don’t look at me like that, Mason. You can’t do anything.”

              He nodded, but she could see the anger in his eyes. Mason anger. The type that threatened to swallow up any rationality he might have.

“There are still people inside,” Mason began.

              “And they’re going to die.”

              “We can save them.”

              “No, we can’t.”

              Mason yanked his hand out of hers and for a horrible moment, she almost thought he might hit her. But no, not Mason. His anger was always directed at himself, never others. Instead, he turned and punched the wall, hard enough to break his knuckles. She’d seen him do this before and it never ended up well for him.

              “Don’t do this,” she said. “We’ve got some time. Let’s make it matter. You’re still a hero. No one is going to die tonight because you can’t save them. It’s the Baggers, Mason. Not you. Don’t blame yourself.”

              “I’m not blaming myself,” he growled. “And I’m not giving up.”

              “And you’re not letting Casey watch you die, either,” she snapped. That seemed to make him focus a little better.

              Mason took several deep breaths. “Come on, let’s do what we can.”

              They got to the front lobby just as a tall feral tossed a fire extinguisher through the window. They’d finished their assault on the outside and had finally noticed the casino. At the sound of the shattering glass, more of them surged forward, eager to continue their destruction.

              A female feral raced towards Aries. Before she could react, Mason stepped between them, pushing the monstrous girl, and sending her flailing to the ground. She hissed and screamed, snatching at Aries’ ankle. Aries kicked her, felt the feral’s nose burst beneath her shoes.

              They were pouring through the broken glass, breaking more windows in their haste to get inside. The Plaza was full of them as they stepped over the bodies of both human and Baggers. The Casino was their next destination and they would pour through it like a swarm of locusts, killing everything in their paths.

              Aries had a gun and no idea how many bullets left. Mason held on tightly to a baseball bat. Not nearly enough to defend themselves.

              “Aries. Mason.”

              Daniel appeared at the big doors behind them. Both Mason and her turned and ran towards him. Going further into the building probably wouldn’t save them in the slightest, but at least it would keep them from getting torn apart in seconds.

              Aries looked around the strange room at the wall of cages. She spotted Clementine immediately as she freed a girl with long brown hair. Chaplin was there too, struggling with a pair of bolt cutters on a difficult lock. Between the two of them, they’d managed to free about ten people, but there were still dozens left, banging on their chain-link prisons, begging to be set free. She glanced at her watch.

              They were running out of options.

              “Time to go.” Daniel appeared at her side. Breathless and bleeding, she couldn’t believe how injured he looked. “I’m fine, don’t ask,” he muttered before she could even open her mouth. “We’ve got worse problems.”

              He was holding a kitchen knife, a tiny thing that was more useful slicing apples than Bagger skin.

              “There’s a bomb,” she said, the words making her feel more useless and anxious each time she spoke them.

              “They just want to make things more and more difficult,” Daniel said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of this. I need a vacation. Surf. Sand. Sunburn.”

              “I’ll book tickets to Hawaii,” Mason said. 

              “Will you two quit joking around,” Aries snapped.

              “Yes, Ma’am.” Daniel pointed towards another set of ‘Staff only’ doors in the back. “That’s our cue.”

              Aries paused, trying to ignore the faces behind the chain-link. It would haunt her for years, knowing they were right there and unable to save them all. She looked at Mason and could tell he was thinking the exact same thing. Pounding on the doors brought her back. She turned towards the front of the Casino as the ferals swarmed into the room.

              The ferals wasted no time. They reached Chaplin, bringing him down in seconds, dozens of bodies surrounding him and clawing at his windbreaker. Clementine unlocked the last cage, letting a thirty-something man free. The guy refused to come out, screaming in terror at Clementine to lock him back up. Grabbing hold of her hair, the guy tried to use her as a shield to protect himself from the oncoming slaughter.

              Aries swung her arm and her fist hit the guy squarely in the chin. Clementine ducked down and Aries hit him again, forcing him to stumble back, letting go of her friend’s hair. A body slammed against Aries, a feral screaming in her ear and clawing at her shirt. She raised her gun but didn’t pull the trigger. Too afraid she might shoot the wrong person, she slammed the metal weapon against the dirty teeth that tried to chomp on her arm. The feral grunted and went down.

              “Now. Now. Now.”

              The room erupted into a mass frenzy. People screamed and pleaded as the ferals began climbing the chain-link fencing, fighting to try and get hold of the people inside. It was over. They’d done their best, even if it wasn’t nearly good enough.

              “Aries. Come on.” Daniel shouted in her ear. He yanked on her arm, but her legs had frozen. She watched as the ferals tore apart a cage with their bare hands. So much power when they were working together as a group. The girl inside didn’t stand a chance as they reached through the broken metal to take her. 

              Aries could hear Daniel screaming, but the words were fuzzy and far away. Hands draped across her shoulders as he tried to force her to look away from all that death.

              “Look at me!”

              She did. Those dark piercing eyes.

              “Aries. Snap out of it and listen. This isn’t your fault,” Daniel said. “Don’t you fall apart on me now. The Baggers. Me. Take all the bad things we’ve done in this world and make it matter.”

              She nodded. Mason and Clementine rushed past them toward the back doors. Mason swung his bat at they ran, knocking over two ferals to clear the path.

              Daniel held out his hand and she took it, feeling his warmth as he squeezed tightly. As the numbness faded away, she felt her confidence returning. It wasn’t Game Over just yet. They still had time.

              Roughly about ten minutes.

Mason

              He recognized the hallway. He’d been led down this path more than once while being held prisoner by the Baggers. He’d been locked in some of the rooms and tortured by Leon personally. But if the long winding corridor led towards and exit, Mason couldn’t say for sure. The Baggers had never given him the option of a way out.

              But Daniel seemed to know where they were going. He led without pause, leading them further into the building. Hopefully Daniel knew the way. If they hit a dead-end, there wouldn’t be the luxury of backtracking. Mason could hear the ferals close behind, screaming and grunting as they gave chase.

              “There,” Daniel shouted as they turned another corner. At the end of the hall was an exit sign above a metal door. “That’ll get you out.”

              Aries reached it first, slamming into it with her body and pushing hard. Clementine and her didn’t even hesitate. They escaped into the night air. Mason reached the exit next, but paused, when he felt Daniel’s hand on his arm.

              “Old times,” Daniel said. He held up his tiny pairing knife, referring to last winter when the two of them spent a considerable amount of time killing as many Baggers as they could find.  “We’ve had better odds.”

              “We had better weapons,” Mason said.

              “Sense of adventure, Tourist Boy.”

              Mason grinned in spite of himself.

              The sound of footsteps echoed towards them. Several ferals appeared at the other end of the corridor.

              “Time to go,” Daniel said.

              Mason pushed open the door. He could see Aries and Clementine waiting for them. The area behind the Casino seemed to empty. They had a clear path towards False Creek and the boat waiting for them.

              “We might need a diversion,” Daniel said.

              “I can still fight.” Mason raised his baseball bat as the group of ferals closed in. He counted about a dozen of them. Not bad odds at all.

              “Do me a favor,” Daniel said. He paused, breathing heavily, and wiped sweat and blood off his forehead.

              “What’s that?”

              “Promise me you’ll stay in the light.”

              And then Daniel shoved him, sending Mason stumbling through the exit. As he looked back in surprise, the other boy gave him a sad smile as the door closed, effectively sealing Daniel off from the outside world.

              Mason heard the lock click. The exit doors had no outside handle in which to get back inside.

              Nothing to do but go forward. Mason reached Aries and Clementine and they ran towards the water. The Plaza of Nations was no more. The outside structures had been completely torn apart. The kitchen area. The tents. Everything lay in shambles. Bodies spread out across the ground. Mostly people, victims who didn’t stand a chance. The ferals had taken over.

              Nothing to do but run.

              The overly expensive yacht waited for them. Mason spotted Jack and Joy standing guard on the dock with some other people. A few dead ferals were spread out around them. They’d managed to keep everyone safe. Thankfully the ferals had been more interested in the Casino than the water.

              “I’ve got the keys,” Aries said and Mason saw her glance at her watch. How much time did they have? He tried to count down the minutes in his head, but couldn’t say for sure.

              “Give them to me,” Larissa said.

              “You can drive this thing?”

              “Watch me.”

              “Mason!”

              Casey raced down the plank and into his arms. He picked her up, ignoring the pain in his shoulder and spun her around, taking great pleasure in the way she laughed. He carried her back on board as Larissa and Joy disappeared into the ship to start the engines.              

Looking around, he spotted only about a dozen or so people staring anxiously back at the Plaza of Nations. So few of them had escaped. Hopefully more had made it out into the downtown core and were far enough away and out of reach of the impending explosion.

As the boat engine roared to life, Mason let Casey down and told her to go find Janey and head down below. He didn’t want the children on deck for what was coming next. As the yacht slowly began to back away from the dock, he watched. After a moment, Aries joined him. They stood together, searching the empty Plaza for a familiar face. But Daniel didn’t show.

“He’ll get out,” Mason said, more for his own benefit than hers. “He always does.”

Aries didn’t say anything.

“Just watch…any…”

The Casino suddenly trembled as if hit by an invisible wave. Loud cracking noises filled the air as the building imploded. The surrounding Plaza broke apart, the stage groaned as the roof crumbled. Flames shot up in the air, releasing tons of black smoke into the atmosphere.

People standing on the yacht gasped and screamed. Bits of debris exploded, sending large pieces of concrete in all directions. A chunk of building propelled through the air, landing with a large splash a few feet from the dock.

The Baggers had taken over the Plaza of Nations and turned it into a human personal hell. In seconds, everything they’d created disappeared in a wave of smoke, fire, and rubble. And best of all, the ferals had gone down with it. Mason couldn’t help but feel a little vindicated. He might have even laughed if it hadn’t been for the many others still trapped inside. Innocent people. People who deserved better.

The only thing to do now was make it count. As Daniel said, they needed to find a way to make all those lives matter. To continue on so that no one died in vain. To prove to the Baggers that they couldn’t be controlled or killed off. That the survivors would move forward and rebuild what the Baggers couldn’t destroy. 

After a few minutes, Clementine came and joined them on the bridge. Together, in silence, they watched the burning Plaza grow smaller in the distance. Mason inhaled deeply, letting the salty air fill his lungs. Seawater sprayed against his face and he closed his eyes and allowed his body to feel the boat as it hummed beneath his feet.