[Chapter 24] Día de Los Muertos
Blind they were while stumbling through the darkness. Wounded animals brought to the slaughterhouse to be relieved from their suffering. Unknown voices spoke to them when the darkness grew even darker. A banging sound as the door of a sea container was closed behind them. Hands tied behind their backs. Another voice spoke to them. Telling them everything was going to be alright. The drums of footsteps walking through the container made them turn their heads in different directions at high speed. The calming voice spoke again, telling them he was not going to hurt them. They were standing in the same sinking boat together. He helped one to get rid of the blindfold and untied his hands. The two others were next.
Mason blinked rapidly to adjust to the light. But there was no light for his eyes to adjust to. They were locked away in a dark container, ready to be executed by whoever put them there. Merle cussed like he had never done before, because he knew this would be the end of his days.
'What the hell is this place?' Daryl asked the stranger they couldn't see through the dark cloud covering their vision.
'Your final destination.' the voice spoke like a philosopher. It was a male voice speaking to them. A grunting, raw voice.
'Let us out!' Merle cried out, hitting the steel walls of the container with his clenched fists.
'Save your energy. No one's coming to save you.' the voice said, followed by short laughter.
Mason noticed a small hole in the side of the container and peeked through it. He was able to see a small part of the place they were taken to. A small, roofed steel cage was located on a sandy field with bits of brain sticking to the construction.
'Don't look outside. They'll know if you do and let you meet your demise before you know it.'
'Where are we?' Mason asked, rubbing his head. He was stressed. Everyone, except the stranger in the corner of the container, was feeling like a pig ready for slaughter. The silence before the roaring storm had arrived. And the storm was near its breaking point.
'You're in hell.'
'Answer the damn question or I'll kill you.' Daryl hissed.
'Go ahead. I've been waiting for that moment since the beginning.' the man laughed.
'Tell us our exact location.'
'You're standing in the last ship to leave the shores for a better world.'
'What happens inside that cage?' Mason asked the man as he sat down with his sore back against the steel wall.
'You don't want to know.'
'If he didn't, he wouldn't ask. Tell us what happens inside there.' Daryl grunted. Merle was still making a futile attempt to break out of the container.
'Fine. But only because you're asking nicely.' the man sarcastically yielded. ', This place is a danger to any outsider getting close. The people in here sacrifice one survivor to the dead every Sunday around sunset to find their new leader. Only someone who's able to beat the dead without dying, is worthy of taking over the leadership.'
'People are insane…' Mason spoke to himself, dropping his face in his hands. ', Even more than the walkers.'
'How many walkers you got to fight?' Daryl asked.
'Unlimited. You got no chance. If you beat one flock of walkers, they'll just push in the next.'
'Why do people believe such things?' Merle cried out, not really looking for an answer.
'Because our current interim leader keeps them safe. And as long as people are safe, they're willing to follow the man who keeps them there.'
'How do you know this?' Mason asked.
'I was part of it once. I… sacrificed the living until I realized it was all nonsense. They've put me in here to sit in the darkness with the damned. To rethink my sins. But I'm not dying. I want to die. They'll keep me alive at any cost.'
'What day is it?'
'No clue. I only know when it's Sunday because people are being executed for the greater good that day. You lose any feeling for time when you're locked away like this.' the man said with a grin on his face that no one could see.
Mason knew by peeking through the small hole that it was around afternoon. Later that day, when the outside grew dark too, the doors to the container were opened with a screeching sound.
'Move and you'll die.' the voice of the man that took Mason and the Dixon brothers here said. Dirty plates were pushed into the container with some food on it. 'Eat.' The container doors were closed with a loud bang once again.
'Breakfast, finally.' the man laughed. No food was given to him for the entirety of the day until now. But it was nothing to him. There had been times he wasn't given food for days. The damned only got food and water if there was enough to spare.
'Get some sleep. At least give yourself a small chance to beat a few walkers before you're eaten alive.' the man laughed as he closed his eyes and fell asleep immediately.
Mason was awake the whole night, thinking about what could happen inside that cage. There was only one outcome: Death. Anyone that stepped inside that cage would become a walker.
None of them said a word to one another for the entirety of the day. Merle kept trying to find a way out. His knuckles were bruised and bleeding from the punches he threw at the steel, but pain was not stopping him.
A female voice gave orders from somewhere around the cage: 'Get the walkers ready. It's almost time.'
Mason crawled to the small hole in the wall once again. His vision on the cage was blocked by fourteen walkers in all sizes. A twisted feeling slithered through his stomach as he saw two children among that group. These people had the guts to use children for their beliefs.
A woman with long, brownish hair and a slightly cocky look on her face came closer to the sea container they were locked in, but she made a last second turn to the left. The man who was locked up with them explained there were much more people locked away in this place. A large scar was covering the pale skin of her throat.
'Who's that woman?' Mason asked.
'That… is the second in command. She hardly believes in the sacrifices herself, but she was smart enough not to share that with our beloved leader like I did. Sweet Charmaine Diyoza. Very good under the sheets. Deadly outside of it.' the man said with a big grin on his bearded face.
'Why is she doing this if she doesn't believe in finding someone strong enough to fight off all the walkers?'
'You ask a lot of questions, kiddo. Don't you have other things to worry about? Like your own damned life for example?' the man had a sudden mood change. He felt like Mason was getting too close to private information. But instead of just not answering, he hammered his question down.
People were yelling, praying and creating a pathway for Diyoza and her victim. Mason couldn't see who was going to be sacrificed because of the walkers in front of him.
'Get away from that hole. You don't want to witness what's about to go down.' the man suggested, but Mason wasn't listening. He had to see with his own eyes what kind of things happened inside the walls of this community. This cult.
'Welcome fellow survivors. Tonight we once again attempt to find a worthy messiah for the leadership of our community!' the man that abducted Mason, Daryl and Merle started his speech before sacrificing a poor soul.
'As this man will fight his way through the undead, we will once again try to find out if this man is the savior we've been waiting for. A messiah sent by the Gods to protect us from the creatures of hell who have invaded our earth and are trying to get rid of us: the living.'
Someone opened the door to the cage and pushed a man inside. Mason still wasn't able to see any facial features through the group surrounding the steel construction.
The leader whispered something to his right hand commander and Diyoza picked two walkers from the fourteen they had and moved them inside. Not long until Mason saw two walkers dropping on the ground with their brains splattered all over the sand beneath their feet. Another three walkers were pushed in the cage and died.
'Send in the remaining.' the leader ordered from a distance. Nine walkers were pushed into the cage. A few fell, followed by loud screaming which could be heard far outside the walls. The sun had almost faded beyond the horizon.
'Ready the second.'
The unknown man in the sea container heard that as well and was surprised. It wasn't usual to sacrifice more than one survivor to the walkers. Mason noticed the people taking some distance while the cage was emptied.
A freezing blade struck him in the heart as he saw the person who had fallen victim to the cultists. His eyes grew and tears popped up. Breathing became tough and a feeling of suffocating grew in his chest. He squeaked a few times before screaming. He uncontrollably started slamming on the steel walls with the palm of his hands.
'What's wrong with you? Do you want to die or something?' the man in the corner shook his head.
But Mason didn't hear him. He was paralyzed and his eyes couldn't move from the motionless, victimized body of Thomas laying in the cage twenty meters away from him.
A young girl was pushed in the cage and was bitten by a zombified Thomas before Diyoza could send in the walkers herself. Mason cried it out once again as he dropped to the ground. His body was hurt, his soul was shattered and his heart was bleeding.
'Are you okay?' the unknown man asked, seriously sounding concerned about Mason's current state of mind.
Daryl crawled up to him and tried to pull him into a seating position, but Mason wasn't going to move. He was frozen, staring at the ceiling of the container which was hidden somewhere in the darkness surrounding them.
'They killed Thomas.' Mason whispered in a rhythm. He kept saying those three words over and over again. 'They killed Thomas. They killed Thomas. They killed Thomas.'
Continuous repeating of these three words followed for the following thirty minutes before Mason snapped out of it, his pain making place for fury. He couldn't get out, but everyone who believed sacrificing innocent survivors was a good idea would suffer from his wrath. It only took another thirty minutes for Mason to go back to the grief again. He sat against the wall throughout the entirety of the night, staring at the ground, peeking through the hole a few more times in the hopes of waking up from a terrible dream. But Thomas was still inside that cage, slowly ticking against the steel bars.
Mason barely moved for days, passing on the food that was given to them and trying to figure out how they were going to get out of this place in one piece. And after getting out, he was going to find his way back in to make sure the leader with his stupid glasses wouldn't live to put his beliefs in others heads. He was thinking about every sadistic way that popped up in his mind to execute that man.
An empty feeling filled his heart. Only one single thought spun through his mind. Revenge. A very bloody revenge. He played with his hair and fingers in an attempt to distract himself from the flashbacks of the gruesome death his friend experienced. But the harder he tried, the stronger the visions came back flashing before his eyes. He sometimes woke up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, screaming from what he kept seeing over and over again. The impact this death had on him was insane. Daryl was the only one trying to help him, but Mason did not want any help. He wanted to be alone. He wanted to get out of this stinking, cold container and slaughter every cultist he could find with his bare hands. The thoughts about actually doing something like that scared him, but the fear came with a lot of desire.
'What's happening to me?' he kept whispering to himself when these thoughts passed by again.
'Insanity is a bitch.' the man in the corner of the sealed container smiled. They still didn't know his name and had no intention to ask him about it.
'Shut up.' Daryl grunted.
'Your friend asked a question, I gave him an honest answer.'
'Don't. He just saw someone he knew die brutally.'
'Someone I knew…' Mason whispered, grinning as he got up from the cold floor. ', He was my best friend…' he snapped back at Daryl. Actually, his grandfather was his best friend. But Thomas got very close to that position.
Thomas became a brother to him in the short time they knew about each other's existence. They had each other's backs, were willing to sacrifice their own lives for each other and would've fought this battle until the end together. But that hope was now gone. Hope made place for grief, fear and anger.
Another week passed. Mason started realizing his life would be really over if he kept passing on the food. He kept thinking about a way out and had one final plan in his mind. A plan to get out of this hell. Lately he had been thinking about his life again. He was given a second chance. A chance to redo his life. But the second chance might have been worse than the first one.
It was Sunday again. The sun was going down behind the horizon and they were nervously waiting for someone to pick them for today's ritual. At least one more innocent person would die today because people believed in this bullshit. He peeked through the small hole in the side of the container once more, looking at the annoyed face of the woman in control of this ritual. Again it was the other container someone was picked from. Mason's heart skipped a beat when he saw the bruised face of Filip. He had an injured leg and fell on the ground twice before Mason noticed who they took.
'Hey!' Mason yelled through the hole. Daryl whispered at him with an angry voice, telling him to shut the hell up. He was going to cost them their lives if he kept this going on like this. He did not listen to him and yelled again. And again. Until Diyoza finally noticed him and sent two guards to the container to silence him.
The door opened and Mason immediately jumped the two armed men before being shut down with a high voltage shock from a taser.
'Bring him here.' Diyoza said. ', Change of plans. Bring this one back.' she continued, pushing Filip back towards the container.
Filip was shocked seeing Mason dragged to the cage like that, but did not have the energy to stop this from happening. He had been tortured since he was captured. The cultists knew he was part of a dangerous motorcyclist gang and wanted information. Today was the day they decided it was futile to keep torturing him because the Scot wasn't going to break and turn on his brothers.
'Shouldn't have yelled at me, boy.' she threatened as the two guards pushed him further and further. He was locked inside the same cage he saw his best friend die in. Parts of his ripped body were still sticking to the steel bars. Mason swallowed his tears and fear. If this was going to be the end of his existence, he was going to fight it with every last ounce of energy he had flowing through his veins.
The walkers he would have to face were brought into the daylight. The last rays of sunlight splitting day from night. Diyoza opened the door and two walkers were shoved in. Mason turned into the monster that was hidden deep inside him since the very beginning. The beast that was awoken when he saw Thomas die. Rotten flesh and old blood covered his hands when he grabbed the heads of the walkers and crushed them through the bars of the cage. When the two walkers were executed with ease, he stared into the eyes of Diyoza with a demanding look. Demanding more walkers to show her she made a mistake. She smiled at him, knowing how to make sure he would never touch her or threaten her life.
'Put them all inside. If he's really our leader, he can take them on all at once.' she whispered behind her hand covering her moving lips. He was scared when he heard the whispering of her words, but wasn't showing it. The cage door was opened again, walkers were pushed in and he started fighting against eight of the undead.
An uphill battle he was never going to win when the sounds of gunfire rose beyond the wall. The walkers inside the cage were distracted for a split second, allowing Mason to take some out. The other walkers were shot out of nowhere, dropping motionless in front of him. Everyone in the camp was looking for guns, but the surprise attack coming from the outside was too quick and out of nowhere to avoid defeat.
When the smoke cleared out, Addison appeared in front of the cage to get Mason out of there. When he thanked her, the color disappeared from her face.
'Your arm.' she stuttered, looking at a fresh biting wound. He grinned, knew it had to happen like this. And it wasn't the only biting wound he obtained during his brawl in the cage. He didn't even feel the pain in his chest until he saw the gaping wound. A tooth was stuck in his flesh and his death was inevitable.
Tears rolled over Addison's cheeks. Laura rushed to their location, breathing heavily from the rapid action. She almost fainted, staring at the wounds on the body of the man she loved. The others were too busy releasing the innocent and capturing the guilty, locking them away in the sea containers.
Mason didn't want them to touch him to avoid infecting them with his fresh wounds.
'Give me your knife.' he gestured to Addison when he saw the grey haired man that captured him and the Dixon brothers and was the man in charge of this place. The man who ordered to kill Thomas.
'What are you going to do with it?' she stuttered.
'Getting revenge for Thomas.'
'What are you talking about?'
'I'm not the only one that has died because of these people.' he answered, already accepting his final hours as a human being, breathing air and walking free. Addison completely lost it when she heard Thomas had fallen as well. She dropped her Z-Whacker, fell to her knees and begged an unknown force to wake her up from this nightmare. Laura was staring at Mason. She cherished every last sight she had of him before he passed away.
'See you in hell.' Mason smiled at the man who killed his friend, stabbing him in the chest a few times and pushing him to the ground. One last slash with the blade slashed his throat and ended the man's life before he turned.
Mason fell on the ground, feeling the first impact of the infection flowing through his body. Opie rushed to his aid and helped him sit against the steel wall of another container. When everyone was captured, all the walkers were taken care off, they gathered around their dying friend to say their last goodbyes.
Lincoln looked at him whilst kneeling besides the dying man he barely knew. But he knew he was a good man who had the chance to survive if he wasn't blinded by grief.
'May we meet again.' he spoke, shaking hands with Mason.
'Of course we will. Hell has got a few more places to fill.' he smiled. He found a sense of humor in his dying process. A huge burden dropped from his shoulders when he was bitten.
'Thank you for saving my life. I'll miss you.' Tara said, tears in her eyes while she and Jackson sat down next to him.
'I'll miss you too.' he said. Tara was dear to him for many reasons. She didn't want the violence to rule this world. She wanted people to work together in peace to exterminate the undead and rebuild society.
'Find the peace in your passing that you couldn't find in your life.' Jackson said philosophical. Mason burst out in laughter. Never had he expected these words to come from the blond biker's lips.
Mason noticed Daryl and Merle staring from a distance with the unknown man they met in the container next to them. He saluted them while he didn't know them. They survived this far. That had to mean something.
Addison couldn't control her tears, even when Mason asked her to stop crying.
'Why do all the good people die?' she asked him.
'Because a world like this can only be defeated by the strong people. I've never been strong myself. It was you guys that pulled me through this. You, Thomas, Laura, Lincoln. The Sons. Hell, even Negan pulled me to this point of my life.'
'But why you?' she asked, tears falling on Mason's hand as his fingers twirled into her fingers.
'I got my chance to redeem myself. I failed. Now it's over. Finally.' he said. ', Don't you dare to stop surviving because I'm dying. You got to keep going. Find that cure. Find a way back. Keep going.' he motivated her.
Addison wiped the tears from her eyes and popped a smile on her face, giving him a quick kiss on the forehead before she said goodbye and stood up again.
Filip and Opie thanked him for showing them new ways to survive. For learning them things and being a part of the survival.
Laura was the last one to say farewell to him. She did not cry because he was dying. All she did was smile at him while she stared at his worn face.
'I love you.' Mason finally shared his true feelings about the blonde woman with the striped tattoo on the right side of her neck.
'I love you too.' she responded. They shared a long, timeless kiss that came out of nowhere. Mason closed his eyes during the kiss and didn't open them again.
'You've done great. I'm proud of you.' the laughing voice of his grandfather said to him. When he opened his eyes again, he was standing on clouds, looking down on his lifeless body on the ground while he stood next to his grandfather. They were the only ones on that cloud.
'Thank you.' Mason said, putting his arm around his grandfather's back. They stood there, weightless on the clouds, looking down on life as it continued without them.
'It's good to have you back.'
'Likewise.' Mason answered.
Mason had lived a restless, hard life in two completely different worlds, but now finally found what he had been missing. His grandfather. His best friend. The two of them were finally together again, looking down on their friends as they kept fighting for survival and to find a way back to the world they used to know.
Mason had no regrets of taking the risk to fight all the walkers and eventually dying. He had thought about dying since his grandfather died and he finally met his match in death. His life was over, but his spirit carried on in the survival of his friends.