Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 30

"Run!" Logan bellowed.

We quickly found a sign that said SOUTH WING. The doors from the theater burst through, and I knew the vectors were quickly closing the gap between them and us. As we turned the corner toward the cathedral, a dozen vectors came charging toward us.

Luke raised the shotgun, aimed at the closest vector's head, and fired. Its head disappeared in a puff of meat and blood.

"We're trapped!" Luke screamed.

The vectors were a dozen paces away, blocking the path toward the main corridor leading to the cathedral.

"Stairs!" Yousef pointed at the door behind us.

Logan quickly pivoted toward it, pushing onto the panic bar, and burst through. Luckily, no vector was on the other side. Luke and Yousef held the door as the vectors reached it. Logan laid me down by the stairs, turned around, and slammed his body against the door, blocking the vectors pushing through from the other side.

"I don't think we can hold them much longer!" Yousef said.

The hinges began to buckle.

I got up on my feet and sidled my way between Luke and Logan, pushing back against the door.

"There's too many of them!" I cried out.

We must've held the door for a few minutes as the relentless push of the vectors kept on increasing and increasing without fatigue. My arms were already starting to cramp as the pain returned ten times over from my shoulder. If we held on a minute more, the vectors would push through.

"Fuck," Logan spat. His eyes landed on me and softened. "If we stay here, we'll die." He paused, holding his tongue as he shook his head. "I can't fucking believe I'm saying this...I think I can hold them off."

"Hold them off?" I asked.

"I am not a quarterback and played defense for nothing. It'll give all of you enough time to get out of here."

The upper hinges buckled and shot out of its screws, landing close to my feet.

"No. We are not leaving you."

"Bren, this door won't hold. You guys need to go."

"I said we are not leaving you!"

"No!" Tears formed around my eyes, threatening to spill. "I'm not doing this."

"It's the only way."

"I'm not leaving you, man," Luke said, and I nodded along with him.

"I swear to God, I am gonna shoot all three of your right here if you don't get your asses up those stairs. Now, move, damn it!"

"Shit!" Luke cursed. He let go of the door and grabbed my arm. "Bren. Come on!"

"I said no!"

Luke reeled his hand back, and a frown crossed his face as if I had offended him that I swatted his hand away. He sighed and took the ax out of his bag, and handed it to Logan. "In case the bullets run out," he said, glancing at the rifle strapped on Logan's back.

Then, Luke wrapped his arm around my chest and pulled me toward the stairs. I kicked and tried to wiggle myself out of his grip, but I was too exhausted to fight. Yousef took one look at Logan, nodded, and let go of the door. We made it to the middle of the stairs when Logan called out my name.

"Bren!"

We turned around.

"I've been a shitty best friend, that much I know. Let me make this up to you for once," Logan said. He paused and gritted his teeth. "I owe you one."

The second hinges on the door broke loose.

"We have to move," Luke said, pulling me up.

I couldn't look back. I couldn't remember how I got up the stairs and ended up in the hallway. Tears streamed down my cheeks as Luke and Yousef fought off a vector on the corridor and killed it when Yousef bashed it with the end of his fire extinguisher.

Then, a loud crash.

And gunfire rang from the stairwell.

Logan screamed. Not a scream as that of a cattle torn to shreds by wolves, but a man filled with a roaring fury, reverberating across the corridor and shook my bones. A cry that tore through the air and nipped the oxygen out. My heart dropped to my stomach when I heard it, and I started to run, trailing behind Yousef and Luke. Logan drew the attention of all the vectors to his location. He's giving us a path toward the cathedral...in exchange for his life.

I stopped.

I listened.

Gunfire shook the lockers propped along the corridor. Logan's roar grew in ferocity.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked, turning back toward me. "We need to go while we still have time."

I grabbed the shotgun off of his hands. "You go. I'll stay."

"What? Why?"

"He needs help."

"You'll die!"

"Or I might not. We don't know."

I stared at the fire extinguisher on Yousef's hands and then glanced at another fire extinguisher sitting in a glass box propped on the wall between two lockers. I slung the shotgun around my shoulders and picked up the fire extinguisher.

"They hate cold. You said that yourself?" I asked Yousef.

"That vector didn't like it one bit."

I nodded. "Go while the others are distracted. There should be a clear path toward the cathedral."

"Bren, this is stupid," Luke said.

"I'm not gonna leave him down there. Please. Don't argue with me, and go."

Luke hesitated for a moment before he turned his heels and ran down the hall.

I quickly placed three more shells inside my shotgun. I had three extra shells on the holder strapped on the side of the forearm. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran back toward the stairwell.

Pinned down near the bottom was Logan. Bodies lay around him in a pile, preventing other vectors from reaching him too soon. More vectors continued to stream through the gaping door. Using it to his advantage, he quickly dispatched one vector that made it past the barrier with a bullet through the neck, taking it back only to be swallowed by the large mass of infected. I ran down the stairs.

Then, a resounding click. Logan was out of bullets.

Logan took out his ax and started bashing any vector that came into view with another piercing cry. He was caked in blood, soaking his hair, his face, and his clothes.

"Logan!" I called out.

Logan turned around, and his mouth hung open. The vectors snapped their heads toward me, and they began to climb up the stairs.

I flung the fire extinguisher into the air, grabbed my shotgun, aimed as it fell, and took the shot.

The tank exploded and swallowed by a puff of white cloud, raining down and blanketing all the vectors and the entire stairwell. The force pushed the butt of the shotgun back against my right shoulder, and the pain on my left grew intensely, and I dropped the gun. A piece of metal hit me on the forehead, and I ducked against the railings as more of the debris shot through against the walls. Screams and shrieks filled the entire stairwell as the vectors scrambled to get out through the lone door. Through the chaos, Logan wiggled out through the mass of bodies and climbed over the railings and onto the stairs.

Our eyes met, and he smiled.

"You motherfucker," he laughed when he reached my side, pulling me up to my feet once again. "You shouldn't have gone back."

"And you'd be dead."

A vector's shriek snapped us out of the moment, and we both looked down below. A few of the vectors that weren't affected by the chemical agent glared and snarled at us and made their way to the stairs.

"Wanna get out of here?" I asked. I picked up the shotgun and ran out through the door, with Logan following closely behind.