The Last Bastion of the Living (The Last Bastion #1)(108)

“We realize we were...hasty in our attack on you earlier. We’re not so...hungry now. We can think clearer now that we’ve fed.” The man’s voice was strangely familiar. It had a rich baritone to it and the hint of an accent.

Maria felt her heart speed up.

“Please, come out. We’re all soldiers of the Constabulary of The Bastion. We’re all Boon. We’re brothers and sisters.” The voice was calm, collected, and sounded reasonable.

It gave Maria the shivers.

Omondi was speaking in his helmet, but his feed was isolated from the squad as he contacted the command center.

“Please, come out. We won’t attack. You have far superior weapons and can easily destroy us. We’re in the open. Exposed. We wish only to talk. To discuss our situation. You may not realize it yet, but you’re in just as dire a situation as we are.”

A touch on Maria’s arm drew her attention to Denman. From the concerned look his face, she discerned he had come to the same conclusion that she had. This was one of the original Inferi Boon.

“How do we know you won’t attack?” Chief Defender Omondi called out.

“We have more in common than you realize. We’re your future. What you will become. Do you think you will be allowed back into the city? We weren’t. Do you think if there was a cure for us, they wouldn’t have administered it? Instead, they cowered behind their wall hoping we wouldn’t find a way back in. They betrayed us and they will betray you.”

The restless shuffling of feet and shifting of bodies indicated that the squad found the stranger’s words just as disconcerting as Maria did.

“Come out. Speak to us. See your future. We have to work together to get into the city and force them to cure us,” the voice continued. “Come out and see what you’ll become.”

Omondi crawled over to Maria. “Keep the squad back and ready to respond if they attack.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

Rubbing his lips together, Omondi nodded. “I cut the feed with command. I want to know what the f*ck is going on out here.”

Maria bobbed her head in agreement. “Understood, sir.”

Omondi stood and cautiously approached the window. Maria and the others shadowed him, careful to keep under cover. The Chief Defender’s imposing form neared the window and he peered out at the stranger standing in the rain.

“Come out, brother,” the man said.

The Chief Defender obeyed.



*



Watching the vids, Dwayne slowly rubbed his chin, concentrating on the feed from Maria’s helmet. She had muted her feed, and Omondi’s had gone dark unexpectedly. Something was going on and he didn’t like it.

“Vanguard Martinez, what is the status of the Chief Defender? I have lost his feed,” Dwayne said curtly.

Her feed reopened, and she answered, “He has advanced in front of the squad. There appears to be an Anomaly outside the main entrance.”

She wasn’t answering his question directly.

“He cut it off on his end,” Lindsey said, answering his earlier question.

Dr. Curran drew closer to Dwayne’s station again. Concern and fear played over her features, deepening the furrow between her eyebrows and the lines around her mouth.

“Vanguard Martinez, I need for you to advance so I can see the Chief Defender,” Dwayne instructed.

“Yes, sir,” came the answer.

The camera on Maria’s helmet continued to transmit a clear signal as she appeared to crawl toward an open window. He could hear her breathing and he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The virus was definitely altering her, and he wondered what secrets the SWD was keeping about the virus from the Constabulary.

Gradually, the image of Chief Defender Omondi came into view. He stood just outside of one of the broken windows. Standing before him was a soldier in Constabulary armor that was dripping with blood and rain. The man’s close-cropped wiry, curly hair glistened with droplets of water as the sun crept out from behind the dissipating storm clouds.

“Find out who that is,” Dwayne ordered and the young man at the work station nearby immediately began scanning the databases.

“I know who it is,” Maria’s trembling voice said. “It’s my father.”

Her feed went dark.



*



Maria could barely believe what her eyes were telling her, but she knew the face of her father too well to deny the truth. Vanguard Mariano Martinez stood face to face with Chief Defender Omondi. He looked exactly how she remembered him. Dark curly hair, wide shoulders, tall frame, and skin a shade or two darker than her own. But his dark eyes were gone. In their place were gleaming red eyes and the warmth of his smile was replaced with cold cruelty.

“Who are you?” the Chief Defender asked.

“Vanguard Mariano Martinez of the Constabulary,” he answered.

Out of the gray, misty rain appeared more figures. Two more people in Constabulary uniforms stepped into view. They, too, had the disturbing red eyes. One was a woman, the other a man. Both were smeared in blood. What was keenly unsettling about them was that, unlike the Inferi Scourge and the Anomalies, their faces were not vacant of thought. Their disturbing red eyes were obviously appraising Omondi.

“Special Sergeant Amber Alkan, Special Constable Gareth Reese and I are the only survivors of the fourth Inferi Boon mission,” Mariano said.