The Last Mission of the Living (The Last Bastion #2)(75)

“What are you doing?” Torran demanded over a secure channel only to her.

“Something incredibly stupid,” she answered.

Maintaining pressure on the door, she slowly slid the giant claw upward. The top of the door slanted even further outward, the metal groaning. A Scrag appeared, clawing his way through the opening. Lindsey caught sight of his screaming mouth and murky eyes as he dragged himself part of the way through the doorway. A second later, one of her people shot him through the head and his body slumped.

“Got him,” Franklin said.

Lindsey continued to glide the end of the loader arm up the door at an agonizingly slow pace. She didn’t want to put too much force into the arm and have it shove the door into the hallway. The body of the Scrag vanished, but two more replaced him. They Scrags were crawling over each other in an attempt to get out of the hallway and into the room where the living were located. Franklin’s sure shots took out one, but the other managed to topple over the edge and onto the loader.

With a shriek, the Scrag launched itself at Lindsey. She brought her arm up in front of her face, just before he slammed into her. Through the visor of her hood, the dead eyes of the man were wide and glazed as he bit down on her forearm. Realizing he was not rending flesh and infecting her, he shook his head violently. The pressure from the bite elicited a cry of pain from Lindsey, but she didn’t dare let go of the control for the loader arm.

Checking her suit stats, she was relieved to see the armor was holding up against the attack, but for how much longer? She was aware of Torran shouting orders, but she directed her gaze past the Scrag at the screen on the loader. She had a job to do.

It was Hobbes that grabbed the Scrag off her and wrenched him onto the ground. With a furious grunt, Hobbes kicked the creature in the head, then shot it point blank.

Still in pain, Lindsey gripped the controls with both hands and nudged the arm up as more Scrags poured over the top. Though Lindsey was terrified, she had to trust her squad to protect her as she finished her task. One bounced off her and hit the ground. It scrambled to its feet and whirled toward her. A second later, it was dead on the ground from a bullet. Gunshots resounded in the room.

Lindsey grinned fiendishly when the metal door straightened under the press of the loader arm and caught one Scrag as it tried to come over the top. Pressing higher with the arm, inch by inch, the buckled door flattened. With a sickening crunch and meaty ripping noise, the Scrag was severed in half. The torso flopped onto the loader, then slid to the ground in a wet, bloody heap.

Hobbes shot it in the head.

Locking the loader arms in place, Lindsey slid out of the vehicle and avoided the blood and guts pooling on the ground. To her shock, she realized more Scrags had come over the top than she’d realized. Her forearm throbbed with pain. A second later, there was pressure against her thigh as the suit injected her with a painkiller. It took only a brief moment for it to take effect, and she was grateful.

A second pallet exited the storage area and a surge of relief flooded Lindsey. One transport was full. Now to finish loading the second. Harsh air currents swirled into the building as the transport lifted off. There was a moment of brevity as everyone cheered, but one hard look from the chief defender had them scrambling to finish the work.

Lindsey stabilized her breathing and redirected her focus to the feed. The aerial drones were still monitoring the perimeter and it was looking grim not only in the rear where they expected a breach, but along the walls and fence lines. Listening to the incoming reports, it was quite clear that they were virtually out of time.

“We have to go now,” the chief defender said. “Commence egress.”

Watching the feed of the wall on the north side of the complex crumble, Lindsey’s heart stuttered in fear. The pallet from the second transport was almost loaded, but they would have to leave without several of the viable food containers.

Carter rushed to put his final container on the loader.

The aerial drones documented the Scrags racing through the wall breach and along the sides of the complex. There were other fences blocking their way, but when Lindsey saw the first one go down in a matter of seconds it became clear that the mission was over.

Torran and Lindsey overlapped each other as they barked out orders, hustling the squad toward the exit. It was clear the soldiers didn’t want to leave so much food behind. The freight pallet driver withdrew from the area before Carter could get this container onto it.

“Carter, we’re done! Go!” Lindsey motioned for him to follow. “Franklin, cover us. We got Scrags on their way.”

“The south fence is down,” Scoggins said tersely.

“Cover us,” Chief Defender Solomon directed. “We need to get the last pallet on board.”

Aerial drones spun through the air, recording the Scrags sprint toward the back of the complex. A rapid calculation in Lindsey’s head revealed that they only had two minutes before the area was overrun. She rushed to the doorway of the facility and nearly froze. A wave of Scrags was speeding from the downed fence line in the rear. The loud clatter of the tiltrotor firing at the horde fought with the whine of the pallet being hoisted into the belly of the big gray transport. The tiltrotor was hovering two feet above the ground covering the squad and the other aircraft.

Sprinting under the wings of the cargo transport, the squad rushed for the tiltrotor. The sound of the approaching Scrags pieced even through the roar of the engines.