The Last Mission of the Living (The Last Bastion #2)(9)

“He won’t. I don’t think. We’ll...maybe...” Lindsey wished she could rub her suddenly pounding temples. “Keep me posted.”

The eyes of the three soldiers around her were watching her hold her private conversation. The worry in their faces probably reflected hers. She switched the comm over.

“So...do we get to shoot stuff?” Hobbes asked hopefully.



*



“Sir!” Goodwin breathed.

“I see the readout.” It was impossible to conceive that the others were gone. Opening the comm to the soldiers in the building, Torran said briskly, “Everyone report. Respond now!”

Strange guttural noises were his only answer.

Torran hit his wristlet, again switching the comm to contact Rosario’s group. “Smyth, report.”

As the other half of the squad was added to his helmet visual, he sucked in a deep breath. They were also reported as Killed In Action. Stunned, he swallowed the hard lump forming in his throat. What was going on?

“Sir?” Jonas queried his voice unsteady.

“Watch that door! Smyth, if you can hear me, respond now!”

Through the static came the sound of someone choking.

The line hissed and buzzed for a long second, then a woman’s voice that was not Rosario’s said, “Don’t worry. She’ll come for you.”

A wave of horror washed over Torran and plunged him into the blackest depths of despair. They were all dead. Just like before outside the wall when the expanding perimeter fence had failed and the Inferi Scourge had swarmed the soldiers.

“Sir?”

The sound of Goodwin’s voice tugged Torran’s attention back to the present. Staring at the empty doorway shimmering in an ominous pale gray in the night vision filter, Torran gathered his thoughts, and then switched the comm again. “Base, I have lost all communication with my squad and they’re being reported as KIA. We are under attack from the abnormal Inferi Scourge. We need immediate backup to this location.”

The popping and static echoing through his helmet sent a surge of adrenaline through his system. For several seconds, he feared there wasn’t going to be a response, but then a voice said, “Master Seeker, you’re to hold position until we can send a tiltrotor with reinforcements. All units are all presently engaged.”

“We can’t hold this position,” Torran answered curtly. If the rest of the squad was dead, then he had to save Goodwin and Jonas as well as himself. He’d been a sole survivor of a squad before and the burden of that label still weighed on his soul.

“You have your orders to secure and hold that area,” came the reply.

“We’re dealing with a pocket of the Abscrags—”

“You have your—”

There were footsteps in the hallway.

“—and we are about to be overrun!”

Jonas and Goodwin lifted their weapons simultaneously.

“Come out. Join us,” a deep voice called from somewhere in the corridor.

The woman at the SWD command center was still droning on about orders. Torran killed the comm link. He needed to concentrate on the situation at hand. First, he had to find a way out of the building and that wasn’t going to be easy with the Abscrags in the hallway.

Somewhere nearby, a Scrag howled.

Signaling for the two squad members to cover him, Torran crept toward the door. The night vision’s inverted perspective illuminated the hallway with an eerie gray glow.

A shadow flickered across the threshold.

Darting forward, he kicked the door shut and hit the lock. Instantly, gunfire started on the other side. The Abscrags now had SWD weaponry. It wouldn’t hold very long against the barrage.

Whipping about, Torran pushed past the frightened soldiers and fired at the windows. The bullets punched into the treated glass, forming fist-sized indentations, but the window didn’t shatter. “Concentrate your fire!”

Jonas and Goodwin immediately obeyed.

The hot metal chipped away at the glass as the guns roared. Behind the three soldiers, the door buckled. It would give way soon.

“We’re going to get out of the building and head toward the subway entrance one kilometer north. Keep moving and do not slow down,” Torran said over the noise.

“The rest of the squad?” Goodwin’s gun clicked empty and she swiftly reloaded.

“Gone. You see the readout.”

“But it can’t be true!” Jonas exclaimed. “Abscrags aren’t supposed to be that smart!”

“Maybe we’re not dealing with Abscrags but something else,” Goodwin suggested.

Torran hated that her comment sounded wholly plausible.

Finally, a large enough hole formed in the glass to allow them to crawl out. Rushing forward, Torran bashed at a few loose chunks with the butt of his weapon. Their armor would protect them from the sharp edges. Behind them, the door was starting to give way in the frame. Soon, the Abscrags would be on them, yet Torran was more worried about what was waiting outside the building. The scan of the area still wasn’t showing movement, but Torran no longer felt he could rely on the readings. They’d have to trust their instincts and training to survive.

“I’ll go first. Goodwin, you follow. Jonas, you bring up the rear.” If something terrible waited outside, he’d deal with it and clear the way for the remaining squad members.