Stage 3: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller (18 page)

Another tug at Mason's shirt. Mackenzie again, but more emphatic this time.

"Mace?"

Her tone was different now; uncertain, disquieted, nervous on downright frightened. Mason scanned the area, but nothing had changed in those few seconds. Had he missed something? Sure, Walker was still rasping and huffing, but the sound didn't seem to have attracted anything. Still, if the girl was worried, there was a reason.

"What is it, Mack?"

Again, he felt Walker's hand strengthen on his shoulder as the man leaned in. Had he heard it, too? Mason pricked up his ears, but all he could hear was the throaty rasp next to his ear.

Suddenly, the girl stopped in her tracks, and Mason hauled Walker to a halt. The man protested with a low gravelly croak and pulled his face so close to Mason's that for one crazy moment, he thought the man wanted to whisper something in his ear.

"Mace," Mackenzie said shakily, "Something's wrong..….."

Mason opened his mouth to respond, but a sudden burst of pain in his shoulder choked off the words. He had the dim vision of a clawlike hand on his shoulder, then he was pulled forcibly off-balance and spun bodily around. In front of him was Walker's face, inches from his own, but it was no longer the face of a man. Where once there had been ashen skin, sallow cheeks, and a pinched grimace of fear, now there stood a ravening beast, lips drawn back in a snarl and wild, sightless eyes ablaze with savagery and menace.

The Walker-creature issued a single inhuman, blood-curdling growl, and then it lunged.

CHAPTER XXII

Mason tried to pull away, but he was held fast by the iron grip on his shoulder. Walker's jaws snapped closed inches from his cheek, and a second claw was suddenly at his throat. Had these not been the well-manicured hands of a doctor, they would have raked across his neck. Instead, Mason felt fingers drag across his jugular, then close on his throat. He instinctively threw a fist at the horrible, twisted face and saw the man's nose explode in a spray of red, but the creature ignored the affront, and the claw at his throat tightened. Mason drew back his fist and levelled another punch that caught the creature squarely on the jaw, but where an ordinary man would have been knocked to the ground, Walker merely howled with rage and lunged again.

Although that horrid face filled Mason's vision, he was aware of other movement around him. Blind, scared, and exhausted, little Mackenzie was in this fight, too. She was half the size of a man, but she punched and kicked and pulled at the Walker-creature like a person possessed. She was too small and weak for her efforts to have much effect, but on she fought anyway, and her bravery actually fueled Mason. He threw one fist after another at Walker, any one of which should have been a knockout blow, but the creature absorbed the pummeling and raged on. Still, the sheer strength of the blows kept the creature's jaws at a distance from his throat, so Mason kept up the relentless barrage. He landed a punch over the man's eye and watched blood pour from the wound. He threw another fist at an already-flattened nose and heard the last bits of cartilage crush like chicken bones. He aimed an awesomely powerful blow at the corner of the man's jaw and felt something give, then he levelled a thunderous right hook at Walker's temple and finally saw the man waver. The creature didn't collapse, but the grip on Mason's shoulder eased, and the fingers at Mason's throat slackened perceptibly.

Mason threw another right hook at Walker's temple, this time making sure his knuckles connected directly with that little sweet spot. He watched as the madman's eyelids drooped and felt the man's fingers loosen even more. As the creature faltered, Mason pulled the claw away from his throat and tore the other from his shoulder. He drew back his bloodied fist and lined up another shot at the same tender spot on the side of the creature's skull, this time intending to knock Walker's very head from his body, but just as he was about to launch the fist, the creature's half-lidded eyes snapped fully open, and only Mason's quickness kept a claw from raking his face. He grabbed Walker's wrist, but then the other claw came up, and it was all he could do just to duck his face out of the way in time. Before he could recover, Walker gaped his jaws and lunged again, and this time he actually felt the creature's teeth graze his throat. Desperate now, he grabbed a handful of the creature's hair and pulled back with all of his might, and as the teeth retreated from his throat and the horribly ravaged face came back into view, he saw that the only reason he hadn't been bitten was that the creature's lower jaw was hanging slack on one side. One of his wildly-thrown punches had just saved his life. Walker's jaw was broken.

Mason reeled back on the creature's hair and threw two more quick punches. Once he saw the jaw come completely loose and hang pendulously, he lined up another right hook at Walker's temple and released the handful of hair to let the force of the blow drive the creature back. As it reeled from the blow and stumbled backward, the Walker-creature came upon the obstacle that was Mackenzie's foot stuck out in its way, and unable to regain its footing or break its fall, the creature fell hard. The back of its skull hit the pavement with a dull wet
crack!,
but though it was momentarily stunned, the fight hadn't gone out of it. The madman was howling with rage and clawing wildly at the air as it began to clamber awkwardly to its feet, but before it could get past its knees, Mason levelled a ferocious kick at the things head and sent the Walker-creature spiraling back to the ground.

If he'd had his weapon, Mason would have taken the opportunity to reduce the good doctor's skull to pulp, but with all of the noise they'd made, and with several stage 3's already too close for comfort, all he could do now was to gather Mackenzie into his arms and run. And that he did. Mackenzie wrapped her arms tightly around him and tucked her face into his neck, and Mason ran for their very lives.

The closest exit was Market Street straight ahead, but they had taken no more than three steps in that direction before Mackenzie hushed into his ear, "Not that way. Too many." He stopped in his tracks, and the girl added in a whisper, "Behind you, too, Mace. But only one, I think."

Just then, two young males appeared where the road opened up into Market Street. Attracted to the sounds of the struggle, they tore around the corner and raced headlong toward Mason, snarling and howling excitedly. Mason spun around and saw a female in a torn and bloodied housecoat closing the distance from behind at a run. With no other option available, Mason darted across the road toward the nearest building and threw himself into the first door he came to. The lock exploded, the door swung wide, and Mason dove through the breach, kicking the door closed just as a double-thud of bodies collided against it. He lowered Mackenzie to the floor and grabbed a nearby chair, propping it up against the doorknob, but there followed a flurry of scratching and pounding on the other side of the door, and one particularly heavy
thud!
that threatened to topple the chair. Thinking fast, he retrieved a coat hanger from a hook on the wall and twisted the heavy-gauge wire around both ends of the broken deadbolt. Once done, he stepped back and regarded his efforts. All four creatures were outside now, pounding and clawing and hurling themselves bodily against the door, but the wire seemed to be holding.

Just when Mason began to think that he and Mackenzie might be safe, a window directly beside the door exploded inward, and the head and shoulders of the Walker-creature burst through. Its mouth hung open, its nose was a pulpy mess, blood cascaded from the ghastly wound on the back of its head and broken shards of glass stuck out from its cheeks and forehead like the quills of a porcupine, yet the creature clawed at them and howled like a madman.

Mackenzie couldn't stop herself before uttering a startled little yelp, and that was enough to stir the other creatures into a veritable frenzy. Two male faces pushed up on one side of Walker, the haggard face of the woman appeared on his other side amid a wild flurry of hair, and they all reached through the shattered window, clawing and growling and gnashing their teeth. Mackenzie stepped a few feet away from the window and froze silently in place, but the creatures already had her scent and weren't to be so easily misled. They jockeyed against one another, fighting for purchase and reaching farther and farther into the room. At last, when the weight of those behind began to actually lift Walker bodily through the window, Mason grabbed Mackenzie in his arms and stepped away from the breach as quietly as he could and as quickly as he dared.

The place they were in was some kind of office. Open floor plan, big front counter, swinging gate, and two rows of desks behind. A stack of calendars on one corner of the counter read 'McHorton Insurance', but the nature of the business didn't matter. With no way to block the advance of the creatures once they were through the breach, the place was a death trap. Mason carried Mackenzie through the swinging door and between the desks to the only other door he could see; an emergency exit at the rear. He set the girl down again, gingerly pressed the paddle to open the door a few inches, and peeked through the gap.

Contrary to the warning sticker, no siren sounded when the door opened, but the situation was no less alarming. He was looking out at an alley that ran behind the string of businesses and connected to a dozen small parking areas between the buildings. At the far end of the alley was Market Street, and he could just make out the corner of the big Farragut's department store on the far side, but getting to that supposed sanctuary now seemed impossible. The alley was crawling with creatures, virtually and literally. Mason counted a dozen in varying states of mobility before he gave up. He let the door close with the barest whisper of a click and reconsidered. It might be better, after all, to stand and fight. Taking on four was a damn sight better than a dozen-plus. But what could he fight them with? Not his bare hands, that was for sure. He was barely able to hold his own against one weak little man and escape with his life. But what kind of weapon could he find here? This was an insurance office, not an armory. If he'd acted right away, he might have been able to pile up a few of the desks and seal the breach, but that time was long gone. Even now, Walker and one of the males were nearly halfway through. Once there was more of their mass on this side of the opening than the other, gravity would take over and they'd be in.

He bent to Mackenzie's side and whispered in her ear.

"Total silence, Mack."

She nodded once and took Mason's hand in hers. Mason turned back to the door, cracked it open soundlessly and stepped through. When he eased the door shut behind them, any chance at retreat was gone. He stood there for a long moment, assessing the swarm and plotting the least treacherous path. There were as many creatures one way as the other, so it was a toss-up which way to proceed. Several stage 3's were stumbling around like drunks making their way home after last call, wild-eyed stage 2's would occasionally appear in fleeting glimpses as they chased after prey in one direction or another, and more than a few other creatures were lying in wait with heads cocked and ears pricked up for the slightest of sounds. Out of all of the creatures in their various forms, it was these last that filled Mason with the most dread. Those macabre statues were the new ambush predators in this world; difficult to elude and impossible to anticipate.

With no clear advantage to one direction of travel over another, Mason knew that the big Farragut's store on Market was still their best bet. Now more than ever, they needed to rest. His mind made up, he gave Mackenzie's hand a gentle squeeze, and they started off.

Almost immediately, they came upon their first obstacle. The alley they stepped into was far from falling into ruin, but with considerably less traffic than a main street, dust and grit had been allowed to accumulate all across the paved surface. As such, even with both of them treading as softly as they could, it was as if they were walking on sandpaper. Every single step was met with a resounding
crunch!,
and after they'd gone barely twenty feet, one particularly massive creature who'd been standing vigil a short distance away roused itself and tilted its head in the direction of the incongruous sound. Mason brought Mackenzie to an immediate stop, and there they stood, frozen in place, unable to move either forward or back.

Getting past the creature would mean passing within arm's reach of it. To Mason, it seemed an impossibility. Worse yet, if they somehow managed that unimaginable feat, they would have to do it again and again and again until they were finally out of the alley. They had ended up here out of necessity, but Mason had to admit that this situation was every bit as untenable as if they'd stayed where they were. If they were to have the slightest ghost of a chance, they simply had to get out of this narrow alley and back to the main street.

One of those little parking strips between the buildings would be their best bet. If they could get to one of those, they could abandon the alley altogether and cut back to where they'd been before Walker changed. And as it happened, the giant in front of them was lurking right at the mouth of the closest of those parking strips. If they could just past this one behemoth, they could get clear of this gauntlet. But with no weapon other than an empty pistol in his waistband, how in the hell were they going to do that?

Remembering his trick with the keys, Mason took a single slow-motion step to the side and squatted at the edge of a flower bed gone to seed. There, he slowly and cautiously gathered up small pebbles one at a time until he had a good handful. Rising again and stepping back to Mackenzie's side, he selected one of the pebbles and tossed it in a high arc over the creature's head. He heard it plink against hard pavement on the far side of the giant, and the creature's head snapped in the direction of the sound as a low growl gurgled at the back of its throat, but the thing didn't move. Mason selected another pebble and took careful aim, then he lobbed it so that it would land in approximately the same spot. Again, the creature growled, but it still made no move. Mason selected the largest of the pebbles and tossed it hard enough that it clattered against the building behind the creature before dropping to the ground, and this time the giant reacted. It spun around with a growl and took three quick steps toward the source of the sound, then it slowed to a halt and cocked its head.

It was working. Just. The way was nearly clear, but the creature was on high alert. Any sound would trigger an attack. Figuring the odds, Mason closed his fist around the rest of the pebbles and threw them as hard as he could. They fell like hail against the building and then rattled to the ground, and that was enough. With a menacing snarl, the giant suddenly launched itself after the source of the sound and away from its post at the edge of the parking lot. Its wild charge had it careening off of the building and sending an elbow through a window, but then it tore off down the alley, howling like a madman and leaving a spattered trail of blood in its wake.

Mason gave a click with his cheek and Mackenzie took his hand as they started off again. They rounded the corner and quickened their pace, but then two creatures emerged at the far end of the parking strip that brought them to an abrupt halt. Mason recognized the two as the lumbering Brothers Grim who'd been trailing them since emerging from the sewers. If he'd had his length of rebar, he could have made quick work of them both, but he had nothing. Still, they were slow and awkward, so fighting through them wouldn't be too difficult, but there were other considerations to worry about now.