Fury Rising

  “Security van,” Daniel said with a grin. “Good call.” He looked around, spotting the Plaza of Nations in the distance. “We’re too late.”

  “Maybe not,” Mason said. He put the van in reverse and backed up; silently enjoying the look on the feral’s face as it toppled off the hood in surprise. “But getting out of the car might be a problem. We’ve got almost no weapons and they’ve got us outnumbered.”

  Daniel shrugged. “Since when did you care about the odds?”

  Mason hit the gas, but the van sputtered and stalled again. Well, that was it. They weren’t going to get any closer under the bulletproof protection. Sighing, Mason thought Daniel was wrong. He did care about the odds. And they weren’t looking very good. More ferals were coming towards them, attracted to the vehicle and the people inside. Aside from Jordan’s rifle and the knife in Mason’s back pocket, they had nothing to fight with. Daniel could barely move and Mason doubted he’d be able to defend himself properly with all the blood loss.

  “We can make it,” Mason said. “If we’re careful.”

  “Since when do you care about…”

  “Give it a rest, will you. Enough with the jokes. Aries is out there. Don’t you care about that?”

  Daniel stopped talking.

  “I’m not giving up on her.” Mason pulled the knife out of his back pocket and handed it back to Daniel. “You take it. You’re hurt worse than me.”

  “And what if I go all crazy again?”

  “You won’t.”

  They looked solemnly at each other. Mason couldn’t shake the feeling that this was going to be their final battle together.

  “What’s the plan, then?” Jordan asked. He pointed towards the Plaza. “I mean, what do we do?”

  “Save as many as we can. Find Aries and the others. Save them too.”

  Daniel grinned. “Sounds like a great plan.”

  “You got better?”

  “Nope. Let’s go be heroes.”

  Jordan checked his pockets and pulled out a few rounds of ammo. As he reloaded the rifle, he whispered a prayer beneath his breath. Mason was glad to see that Daniel didn’t make a comment. If the kid wanted to talk to his maker before he died, he had every right. If Mason had faith, he’d probably be doing the exact same thing.

  And if someone was watching over them, hopefully they were on the same side.

  They waited for a moment longer, watching the growing number of ferals approaching the van. They had to move now while they still could.

  “We’re standing at the edge of existence,” Daniel said. “Funny. I always thought I’d be doing this alone. I’m glad you’re here with me, Dowell. Wouldn’t want it any other way.”

  “Me too. Let’s make it count.”

  “Always.”

  Daniel opened the passenger door quickly, smacking a feral in the face. The girl stumbled backwards into a middle aged feral with no teeth. Mason jumped out behind him, pausing to punch a guy whose hair was full of dead leaves. Instead of wasting his few remaining bullets, Jordan used his rifle as a club to knock the girl unconscious as she tried crawling up from the gutter.

  “Get to the Plaza,” Daniel yelled. “The ones here aren’t worth it.”

  Mason didn’t have to be told twice. He took off with Daniel and Jordan right behind him, amazed that the three of them could still move quickly after everything they’d been through earlier.

  They fought their way towards the Plaza and as they got closer, the ferals spread further apart. No longer the only prey, the monsters began to focus their attention on the dozens of people trying to escape. A few of them were armed with baseball bats and guns. But none of them were fighting. They’d given up on the battle and were more concerned about getting as far away as possible.

  Mason watched a few women rush past, young girls who used to be part of the breakfast crew. He searched their faces for Karen, but she wasn’t amongst them. He didn’t see any of the children either. When one of the ferals tackled a pretty girl with glasses, Jordan used one of his bullets to save her. Mason reached her as she climbed back up to her feet. She gave a squeal until she realized it was him.

  “Have you seen Karen?” Mason asked her.

  “No,” she said. “She might be inside. They forced everyone into the Casino. I think they were killing them. I’m not going back there.”

  “Remember that place I told you about? The safe house? Do you think you can find it.”

  It was one of the places Aries ha told him about. Out on South East Marine Drive. Everyone inside the compound knew that they should head there if they ever escaped. The place was empty, but filled with enough supplies to last a week.

  She nodded.

  “Then go there. You’ll be safe.”

  He watched her race off, trying to catch up to the other girls who were already a good block away.

  Mason turned around, looking straight at the Casino. He didn’t want to go back inside there again. The place held bad memories of being tortured by Leon. But any hesitation disappeared the moment he stepped through the gate and entered the Plaza.

  There were bodies everywhere. Human. Bagger. Feral. They were everywhere. The fight was in full force. Thankfully there were still more people moving around than lying on the ground. He spotted the yacht over by the water, but he couldn’t tell if anyone was on board. Either way, the ferals hadn’t bothered with it; they were too busy storming the compound. None of them appeared to have any interest with the water yet.

  He spotted a baseball bat lying on the ground beside a body. He ran over and grabbed it, enjoying the feel of having a weapon again. Stronger now, he swung it immediately at the first feral that rushed towards him. He brought the monster down with a hard thug that vibrated through his arms and into his wounded shoulder. He began fighting his way towards the Casino, not bothering to check if Daniel and Jordan were behind him. He’d just have to wish for the best and hope they all made it through this alive.

  Reaching the steps, he went inside.

  Clementine

  The doors were bolted, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. Standing back, she fired the gun, effectively breaking the lock.

  She heard screams from behind the wood and instantly dozens of terrified humans began pushing their way through the frame. Someone shoved her hard, sending her to her knees, trying to crawl away before they trampled her to death.

  “Come on. Help me.” Hands reached down and grabbed her, pulling her to the side. Her vision was a sea of panicked legs. Clementine looked up to see Joy holding her tightly, along with the man Mason called Chaplin. They both looked seemingly untouched, aside from a nasty cut on the man’s forehead.

  “Have you seen Jack?” Joy dodged to the side as someone elbowed her in the back. “Hey! Watch it. Pregnant lady, here! How would you like it if I started jabbing you until you peed your pants?”

  Clementine nearly burst out laughing.

  “The nerve of some people,” Joy said, rubbing her sore spot.

  “He’s in the yard,” Clementine said. “There’s a boat. Karen has the kids there. I sent Jack to help.”

  Joy’s face lit up instantly and Clementine understood that the poor girl had probably been expecting the worst. But it wasn’t over yet, not even close. They still had a long ways to go.

  “There are others still in there,” Chaplin said as the last stragglers rushed through the door. “People in cages. We tried to get them out, but we had nothing to cut through the locks.”

  Chaplin led her through the door. What once used to be a brightly lit room full of gaming machines and tables was now a dark prison full of cages. Chain link boxed areas barely big enough for a human to fit. Many of them were filled with people. Clementine glanced at some of the faces staring back at her. Scared and cautious, many of them looked like they hadn’t been allowed outside in months. The smell of body odor and dirt was overpowering.

  These were the people Leon had been keeping for his own advantage. The ones nece
ssary for his new world order. The ones deemed worthy of not killing. Maybe they refused to help the Baggers or were being used for leverage to keep others in line. Or maybe some of them were stuck like Mason and Daniel had been, tortured daily for information.

  “There’s got to be something we can use,” Clementine said. She held out her gun to Chaplin, but it wouldn’t help much. She only had a few bullets left and there were simply too many people. How would she pick and choose which ones to rescue and which to leave behind? She couldn’t. It was only a matter of time before the ferals discovered the Casino and they wouldn’t let a few cages stand between them and their destruction.

  “There are keys,” a woman said from the closest cage. “They keep them somewhere. I don’t know where.”

  Clementine paused. The Casino was massive. There wasn’t enough time to search the whole building.

  “Use these,” a voice came from behind her.

  She turned around to see Daniel. In his hands, was a pair of bolt cutters. He tossed them to Chaplin who immediately set to work on freeing the woman. It wasn’t much and it would still take far too long to free everyone, but it was a start. It meant not giving up. Even if they could free half the people, that would be better than nothing.

  She felt her confidence beginning to return. She turned to Joy. “Go find Jack. Get on that boat and don’t get off.”

  “I’m not useless,” Joy snapped.

  “No, you’re pregnant,” Clementine said. “And that’s important. And rare. You might be the last mother in the world, right now. So stay alive, dammit.”

  “I’ll go with her,” Jordan said.

  Joy reluctantly let Jordan lead her off. Clementine completely understood Joy’s frustration, but it really was for the best. Joy wasn’t much of a fighter. Juan had refused to allow her to use the guns at the park and she had never been in any of the prior battles. If she’d stuck around, Clementine would have been stuck focusing on keeping her alive and she didn’t want that.

  She watched Chaplin start on the second cage. She needed to find something to do. She couldn’t just stand around and watch and do nothing. She turned to Daniel.

  “Someone said there are keys. Do you know anything about it?”

  Daniel paused to think things over. “That shouldn’t be too hard to find. Come on.”

  She followed him across the room to another door. Inside was an office with a small desk and several dead plants. Hanging on the wall was a huge set of keys. He pulled them down and tossed them at her.

  “How did you know to look here?”

  Daniel shrugged. “Watched them use this room a lot when I was in here. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put it all together.”

  She turned the keys over in her hands. Each one had a number on it, probably for each individual cage. But as they went back into the main room, the back doors opened and several Baggers entered.

  Clementine raised her gun, but it didn’t matter. The Baggers had no interest in them. They rushed across the floor, not even pausing for a moment to look at Chaplin as he swung open a cage, allowing a bespectacled man his freedom. The dozen or so Baggers paid them no attention and didn’t even seem to realize that the room was a lot emptier than it had five minutes ago. No, they were too focused in getting out of the building.

  They seemed to be in one hell of a rush.

  “That’s weird,” she muttered.

  Daniel nodded. “Better hurry.”

  “Right.” She stopped at the closest cage. It had the number twenty-three etched into the lock with marker. She matched up the key and popped the lock. One down. Many to go.

  “Have you seen Aries?”

  “She’s somewhere on the second floor,” Clementine said without pausing. She moved on to the second cage, determined to free everyone as fast as she could. Daniel could go chase down Aries all he wanted. There wasn’t much he could do beside her that would speed things up.

  “You let her go alone?”

  Clementine bit down hard on her lip and spun around. “I’m not her keeper, Daniel. I can’t tell her what to do. What the hell was I supposed to do? Chase her down? Sit on her?” She turned back to the lock. Number forty-four. Too many keys in her hand and they weren’t in any particular order. She growled in frustration.

  “Look. I’ve got to tell you something.”

  She ignored him, working her way through several keys. Eight. Twenty-seven. Sixty-five. Where was forty-four?

  “Clementine.”

  “What?”

  “Look at me.”

  “I’m busy.” She found the right key and shoved it into the lock, freeing a woman in her thirties with short greasy hair. “There’s a boat outside,” Clementine said. “Go to it. Be careful.” Without waiting for a response, she brushed past Daniel and onto the next cage.

  “It’s about your brother.”

  She stopped and turned around. “What?”

  “Your brother. Heath.”

  Daniel was watching her carefully. He must have known that hearing Heath’s name was like being struck by lightening.

  “What about him?”

  “There’s a group of people up at Simon Fraser University. Heath is with them.”

  The keys slipped through her fingers and she barely even felt them bounce off her toes. Daniel bent down and retrieved them, handing them back into her trembling fingers. Clementine searched his face, looking for signs of deceit, but Daniel seemed sincere.

  “How do you know?” She could barely speak louder than a whisper. It was like having all the wind knocked out of her at once and being shot in the chest with a gun at the same time.

  “I’ve seen him.”

  The anger appeared out of thin air. “You’ve known where he is all this time and you didn’t tell me? What kind of monster are you? Oh wait…”

  “Jesus, lady, relax. I just found out. Two days ago.”

  “And you waited until now?”

  She could have been there already if it hadn’t been for him. Simon Fraser University wasn’t that far away. Michael and her could have driven that way instead of down Lougheed when they rescued Casey and they never would have crossed paths with the ferals. Michael could have still been alive and she could have been reunited with Heath. The walls seemed to close around her and Daniel, pushing them closer together, where she could reach out and skin him alive.

  “Back off,” Daniel said. “This is the first time I’ve had the chance to talk to you, so stop trying to make me look bad. Might I remind you I haven’t seen you in months.”

  Damn Daniel for talking sense. He was right. He’d only come back last night and she’d been in no condition to talk, being unconscious and all. Had it only been a day since all this happened? It felt like a lifetime, longer than the nine months she’d already survived this new world.

  “Does he know I’m here?”

  Daniel looked away, refusing to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry, but no. I didn’t put it together until afterwards. But it’s him, Clem.”

  Heath was alive. She’d just been given the answer she’d been searching for, so why didn’t she feel excited? Overjoyed? Ready to jump up and down? Clementine didn’t feel anything. Empty. Why?

  Because knowing Heath was alive wasn’t the same when there was a good chance she’d be dead before the night was over.

  “Go find Aries,” she said. “I’ll get these people out.”

  Daniel paused, looking like he wanted to say more, but decided against it. Clementine went back to finding the next key. By the time she pulled it from the collection of others, Daniel was gone.

  Aries

  She couldn’t stop looking at her watch.

  Fifteen minutes.

  And then things were going to go boom.

  Aries nearly collided with Mason as she ran down the stairs. Overwhelmed with feelings, she threw herself into his body before he could get out any words. As he pulled his arms around her, she held on tightly as if her life depended on it. Just feeling hi
s warm body pressed against her, it was enough to make her think that things might actually be okay for a single moment.

  “Thanks,” she said when they reluctantly pulled apart. “I needed that.”

  “What are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?”

  “You don’t know the half of it,” she said with a laugh. And suddenly she was giggling and couldn’t stop. Her brain was overloading with emotion, making her stomach clench up, and her legs go all funny. She needed to both sit down and run screaming through the corridors at the same time and she couldn’t decide what was more important.

  “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.”