The Last Bastion of the Living (The Last Bastion #1)(61)

“Move!” Maria ordered.

She broke into a run, her pack and weapon beating against her back. Her heavy boots and armor weighed her down, but free of the physical constraints of a living body, she sprinted behind Omondi. The squad ran ahead of the pack of Scourge breaking off from the main herd. The howls of their pursuers grew louder and more desperate.

“They’re coming!” someone shouted. “Run faster!”

Maria’s heavy boots pounded over the ground as she ducked around the remains of a barn.

“Hurry!”

“They’re closing in!”

The voices of the squad were edged with terror.

For a second, Maria lost sight of Omondi, then she burst into a clearing just beyond the barn and saw him leaping a low lying fence.

“Stop running!” Denman shouted. “Stop running!”

“No way! You saw what they did to Coleman!” Jameson yelled.

“Stop running! They’re drawn to our movement!” Denman’s voice was insistent.

Maria skidded to a stop. Whirling around, she saw Denman standing still, facing the sprinting creatures following him.

“Denman!” Maria cried out, fearing filling her. She was convinced he would suffer the same fate as Coleman before the Scourge realized his blood was dead, not living.

A howl erupted from Denman’s lips as he flung out his arms. The Scourge slowed, their wild eyes studying the man before them. Howling again, Denman stood still.

“Obey him!” Maria ordered.

She raised her arms toward the Scourge and joined her voice with Denman’s. Following their example, the squad’s voices rose in an eerie imitation of the Scourge howl as they stopped running and stood together.

The Scourge stumbled to a stop, their wild eyes scanning the squad. Maria screamed at them, her voice a frightening sound even to her own ears. She clearly witnessed the moment the Scourge identified the squad as their kind. The desire to rend flesh and infect vanished from their faces and confusion replaced it. Sluggishly, the group of mangled creatures turned to follow the massive horde trudging toward the carrier.

Denman slowly rotated about and raised his finger to his lips. Nodding, Maria motioned for the squad to continue their trek.

No one dared to speak as the gate loomed in the distance.





Chapter 17


The sun had peaked in the sky and was starting its descent when the squad finally made it to the outskirts of the remains of the settlements surrounding the city. Time had eroded the structures, reducing them to mere heaps of ruined metal and plastic. The perimeter fences had long ago been knocked over and flattened into the ground.

“It’s so freakin’ huge,” Jameson said in awe.

“Unlike someone we know…” Cruz joked.

Jameson threw her a nasty look before returning his gaze to the gate. “Seriously, that thing is massive.”

Maria was just impressed as he was. The closer the squad moved toward the massive gate that cut off the only pass to the valley the more intimidating it became. It was a towering testament to the engineers who had constructed the last hope of humanity within the valley. The gate was set into a steel and cement wall that rose ten stories above the valley floor. The door itself was high and wide enough to allow the large trucks that brought in the building blocks used to construct the city.

“There is no way the Scrags pushed that door open,” Cruz declared, anger tingeing her voice.

“How thick was it?” McKinney asked.

“Twelve feet,” Maria answered.

“Wow,” Jameson said. “No way in hell the Scrag *s got in on their own.”

“Which means someone had to have let them in,” Denman pointed out.

“What kind of moron would do that?” Cormier asked.

“A moron with an agenda,” Denman answered, then hurried to catch up to Maria. In a lower voice, he said, “What if we can’t repair the gate?”

Maria gestured with her chin back toward Holm. “We have someone specially trained to deal with it, remember?”

Denman’s face scrunched up, the freckles across his nose standing out against his grayish complexion. “I know I wasn’t around for the training the month before transition, but we don’t appear to have much margin for error.”

Maria smiled ruefully. “No we don’t. That is why we can’t make any more mistakes. We can’t fail.”

Sighing, the medic shook his head. “We already lost one life and were almost attacked again. Being Boon isn’t enough to survive out here, I fear.”

“Then we stay sharp,” Maria said briskly. “We didn’t all give up our lives to be Boon just to come out here and fail.”

“I didn’t mean to-” Denman started.

“This is day one. We’re adapting. We’re learning. We can do that. They can’t.” Maria motioned toward the nearby Scourge staring blindly.

Falling back, Denman was swallowed into the ranks of the squad as Maria continued forward. Keeping her eyes on Omondi’s back, she didn’t look behind her. She knew what she would see: the anxious faces of her squad and the Scourge swarming the carrier in the distance.

And beyond that the city they were desperately trying to save.




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