The Last Bastion of the Living (The Last Bastion #1)(109)

“What happened to the first three missions?” Omondi asked, his demeanor calm, but his voice demanding.

Mariano smirked and glanced at his two companions. “Should I tell him?”

“He’s on his way to joining us,” the woman responded.

Her pale skin looked ghastly beneath the layer of blood and bits of flesh that was bit by bit sluicing away with the rain. Her brown hair was tucked away from her blood-smeared face. She wore a beret with a Constabulary emblem on it. The man standing behind her was as dark as night, tall, and leanly built.

“The first mission was a failure. The Inferi Boon turned Scourge within forty-eight hours. The SWD barely contained them from starting a new outbreak. The second mission was more successful. The squad went through training and were sent into the sewers to clear out some of the Scrags that had found their way into the system through a faulty hatch. They never returned. They turned into Scourge and were destroyed later by the third mission. They cleared out the sewers and exited through the hydroelectric plant. That mission cleared out a good portion of this area before turning Scourge. The fourth mission—us—we were the most successful. We never turned Scourge. But we became something much more dangerous.”

“You’re Anomalies. Cannibals. Feeding off of the dead and living.” Omondi’s words were tight and hard.

“Anomalies?” Mariano laughed. “I like that. We call the ones we turned Aberrations.”

As Maria watched, more mutated Scourge crept out from hiding places. These Aberrations, as her father called them, also wore Constabulary uniforms, and Maria recognized a few among them, including her former commanding officer, Ren Stillson. They looked closer to the Scourge with their murky eyes and swift, jerky motions, but there was something intelligent and desperate in their gaze. There were over fifty of them.

“You created these others?” Omondi scrutinized the bloodied creatures standing at a distance. Though the Aberrations didn’t make any hostile movements, Maria was unnerved by their presence. They were obviously of the same ilk as the mutated Scourge they had fought in the basement.

“We hunger. The hunger is madness. It drives us. At first we tried to assuage it with the food we salvaged from the farms, but it was never enough. Then we...” Mariano faltered, a spark of his humanity showing for a moment. It made Maria’s heart ache for him. “One of us went mad and bit one of the Scrags. The flesh...it...helped with the pain of the hunger. For a while. When the Constabulary tried to expand the perimeter, a few of us were close enough to attack, bite, and feed. Our victims rose as Aberrations. They are simple-minded creatures, but they do as we tell them. They know if they help us, we can get back into the city and feed.”

“We will not help you,” Omondi said in a dangerous voice. “We came out here to save the city, not destroy it.”

“You’re going to be what we are! Soon the hunger will be so great, the pain of it so overwhelming, you will do anything to placate it!”

The madness in his eyes and voice were terrifying. Mariano wouldn’t be reasoned with. That was painfully obvious. The loving father she once adored was gone. He had been replaced with a cold, calculating creature.

Maria shifted her weight, moving into a better position to fire if required. Against Omondi’s orders, she signaled the squad to move into an offensive position.

“So you’re going to invade the city you swore to protect and kill its people?” Omondi asked incredulously.

“We will make the SWD cure us! We will kill until they realize that to survive they must cure us!” Mariano shouted. “We gave our lives to save the city and it abandoned us!”

“We’re soldiers of the Constabulary. It’s our honor to give our lives in service to protect the last of humanity. It’s a sacred duty,” Omondi growled out.

“We’re your future! We’re what you will become! Soon you’ll be tearing into flesh just to slake the pain in your gut and the madness in your mind!” Mariano took a dangerous step toward Omondi, his body coiled as if to strike. Pointing an accusing finger at the Chief Defender, Mariano said, “Do not act the innocent! You came looking for us! You knew we were here all along! Did you tell your people? Did you warn them of what they’ll become?”

Out of the corner of her eye, Maria could see the uneasy movements of the squad. Holm turned her head to look at Denman, then at Maria, her eyes questioning.

“There’s no happy ending for us! There is no cure for the Inferi Boon Virus. Or the Inferi Scourge Virus. They lied to all of us! We came out here to fight their war and we killed for them until the hunger was shredding us. We were going mad with the agony.” Mariano pointed at himself. “I listened to my commanding officer beg the SWD for med-pods. He begged them to come get us. We were in unbearable agony, immobilized, desperate. They refused us. Our Med-Specialist reported our condition faithfully to the SWD, recommending immediate evacuation before we worsened. They refused. And when they realized we had become what they fear most, they stopped answering us. They sent a virus to our wristlets, deactivating them. They thought we would black out and cease to be their concern. But we didn’t. We stayed awake, hungry, and mad.”

“So you’re the reason why they finally shut down the subways.” Omondi slightly moved his weight to one side, a casual move, but one that placed his hand closer to his weapon.