The Last Bastion of the Living: A Futuristic Zombie Novel (23 page)

Falling
onto
his backside, Denman covered his face with his gloved hand. “Oh, Jesus.”

Maria glanced at her wristlet.

Thirty minutes into their mission they had already lost one of their own.

C
hapter 16

Jameson drew his weapon, and with anger twisting his young features, slammed his bolt weapon against the skull of one the
Scourge
and fired.
It
grunted, its body thrashing, then fell to the ground.

“Sir?” Cruz asked, unsure if she should follow Jameson
’
s bold action.

“Clear the area around the carrier,” Omondi ordered, his voice gruff as he stared
down at
Coleman
’
s broken body.

Weapons drawn, the
Inferi Boon
Special Ops butcher
ed
the
creatures
surrounding them. The metallic clang of the bolts punching through the
Scourge
skulls mingled with the moans of the swaying creatures. The
Scourge
didn
’
t fight back or even seem aware of the danger around them. The creatures fell all around Maria. Their skulls were a ruined mess of broken bone and mangled brains. The sight was horrific, yet Maria felt emotionally removed from the slaughter. The memory of Ryan being torn away from her by the
Scourge
buffered her emotions.

The stench was still pungent despite her muted senses. Maria pulled a scarf from her pack and wrapped it around her head and over her nose. Using hook
s
from their packs, Maria and Mikado dragged the corpses away, heaping them into a pile. Arms and legs covered in decades of filth and dried gore wove together in a knot of death.

McKinney climbed into the carrier and tossed out a body bag. Anger strained his features as he knocked over a few
Scourge
blocking his way.

“He was fucking terrified to be out here,” McKinney snarled. “I told him it was going to be okay.”

“It
’
s not your fault. It
’
s no one
’
s fault.”
Denman snatched up the body bag and carried it over to Coleman
’
s body
.

“We all knew the risks,” Cruz said.

McKinney wagged his lowered head angrily. “Fucking
Scrags
.”

“Calm it down, McKinney,” Maria ordered.

Cormier patted the big guy on the back, then guided him away from Coleman.

It took all of Maria
’
s willpower not to stare at the dead soldier
’
s torn body.

“We fucked up,” Mikado grumbled
,
hooking a dead child through the eye. With an angry tug, he hauled it onto the top of the stack. It flopped there
like a doll
,
its
dead face staring at the rising sun.

Maria snagged another
one
by the shoulder and dragged it over. Guilt tore at her and she wondered why they had never even considered the confusion their armor and helmets m
ight
cause. “No one ever really knew how
Scrags
could
recognize
their own from the living
. Hell, some people thought they had a supernatural ability.”

Mikado rolled his shoulders after dropping another
Scourge
on the growing pile of dead bodies. “Yeah, so now we know they visually ID us. What good does that do us now? Coleman is dead.”

Glancing at the carrier and the discarded helmets, Maria sighed. “We won
’
t make the same mistakes.”

Mikado kicked at the stack of the dead. “Fuckin
’
Scrags
. Coleman was a good guy.”

Together they returned to the main killing area to gather more
bodies
. Mikado gruffly shoved over a few
Scourge
and dispatched them with his weapon.

“Just keep focused, Mikado,” Maria said. She wished she felt something other than despair. Anger would serve her well right now, but the day had just begun and already things had gone awry.

Mikado hooked another corpse
, this one a large man, and dragged it away.

Turning, Maria saw Omondi and Denman gently placing the pieces of Coleman
’
s body in the body bag. Once the seal was activated, the body would keep until it was returned to the city. At least Coleman would get a decent burial
,
unlike the poor people turned
Inferi Scourge
.

Snagging another
corpse
with her hook, Maria
towed
it along behind her. It was heavier than it looked and its limbs caught on the ground a few times. Looking down, Maria saw it was a woman dressed in the tattered remains of a dress. Her shoes were long gone and her
head
was a mass of dirty red hair. It was terrifying how we
ll
-
preserved the
ISPV kept its victims. They
looked fresh and newly-
dead, yet Maria knew that this creature was older than she was.

“Check this out,” Jameson called out. He was kneeling over one of the dead
bodies
. “It
’
s wearing a diamond necklace. Can we
,
like
,
take it?”

“We don
’
t rob the dead,” Omondi answered in a grim voice. “Our orders are to salvage only what is useful.”

With a slight shrug, Jameson hooked the creature and hauled it to another growing pile.

Omondi and Denman deposited the bag with Coleman
’
s remains into one of the outer storage compartments of the vehicle. The sun was higher in the sky, hovering over the mountain range. It was growing warmer now, but sweat was a thing of the past. Maria felt like she always did since the procedure: cold and disconnected from the world around her. Glancing at the
Scourge
, Maria wondered if they felt that way, too.

“What do we do now?” Maria asked, observing the cleared area around the carrier.

“We move on to the gate,” Omondi responded. “But first I need to report in. While I
’
m doing that, chart our way through this horde. It
’
s going to be slow going if we have to kill everything in our path.”

Maria saluted and slung herself up into the carrier. Cormier was already in the driver
’
s seat running a diagnostic on the carrier. Activating her console, Maria quickly scanned the crowded valley. The
Inferi Scourge
that had been swarming the carrier no longer sensed prey and had slipped into torpor, but there w
ere
still
Inferi Scourge
traveling toward the carrier. Believing that the carrier held prey, the oncoming herd was marching through the
Inferi Scourge
that had entered torpor. It was likely that the new arrivals would attack the carrier.

Omondi leaned over her, staring at her readouts. “More are coming.”

“The carrier is drawing them.”

“The ones out there stopped when they saw our faces,” Omondi pointed out.

“Yes, but the ones surrounding the vehicle identified us as the occupants of the carrier. The new ones will just see the carrier as the transport of potential prey.
They
’
ll surround us and attack,
” Maria answered. She watched the shifting mass approaching on her screen. “We can
’
t use the carrier to go to the gate or we
’
ll end up in the same position as before.”

“We
’
ll be constantly attacked by
Scrags
wherever we go. That will slow us down significantly,” Omondi observed
,
his voice heavy with his frustration. “What do you advise?”

“Strip it down, activate its defense system, and leave it until we
’
ve cleared more of the valley.” The dread that filled her was unexpected. Despite her transformation into an
Inferi Boon
, she was still unnerved by the massive horde. To not have shelter from them made her uneasy even though she had already walked among them without harm. Yet, it was hard to forget that some
of them
had torn apart Coleman.

“Agreed. Let
’
s get what we need and move on. Cormier, shut it down and get ready to walk.”

Cormier scowled at him, then shrugged. “Figures. I finally get a sweet ride to cruise around in and end up walking.

Omondi flashed the driver a sardonic smile. He climbed out of the carrier and soon his rich baritone was barking out orders.

Tracing over the screen with her fingertips, Maria marked a path through the
Inferi Scourge
in torpor. If the soldiers moved rapidly, they could avoid the larger horde about to descend on the carrier. There were snarls of
Scourge
all the way to the
gate that would have to be destr
oyed. That would slow the squad
, but then again part of their job was to destroy the
Scourge
.

Once she was done plotting their course, Maria transferred the information to a pad and secured her work station. Hopefully, the
Scourge
wouldn
’
t
tear the vehicle apart. Shoving the pad into a big pocket in her armor, she joined the others in collecting extra weapons and equipment.

Jameson snagged one of the toolkits for the gate and glanced toward Maria as she gathered up the
backup bolts for the weapons. “It
’
s n
ot like I thought it would be,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Maria attached the bag of bolts to the bottom of her backpack, snapping the clasps together.

“I thought it would be...different.” Jameson shrugged slightly. “I thought they wouldn
’
t look so...”

“Human,” Cormier offered. “They look human under all the dirt and blood.”

“That
’
s why they fooled people in the beginning,” Cruz reminded them. “They looked wounded and scared, not...what
they a
re
.”

Scrunching up his face, Jameson shrugged his shoulders. “Up close it
’
s just different.”

“I can kill them,”
Holm said from nearby
. “I don
’
t care what they look like.”

Jameson bristled. “I just meant it
’
s not like in the vids, sir. It
’
s different. They
’
re different. I thought it would be more...”

“Fun,” Denman finished. “You thought it would be like the action vids.”

Holm chuckled, hoisting an extra gun over one broad shoulder. “At least
they
a
re
n
’
t howlin
g for our flesh.
I like them docile. It makes them easier to kill.”

“Like shooting fish in a barrel,” Jameson grunted.

“We have the upper hand. They always used to have it before, but now the rules have changed.” Maria secured the lockers and motioned the rest of the soldiers out.

“I like these new rules,” Mikado said, leaping from the carrier.

“So do I.” Cruz followed.

Maria, too, felt uneasy with their circumstances, but they had to make the best of it. There were many unknown variables and no matter how meticulous they had been in their plans
,
something could always go awry. Coleman
’
s death had certainly brought that reality home to all of them.

Once everyone had exited the vehicle, Cormier activated the defense system as she disembarked. It wo
uld sporadically unleash a high-v
oltage pulse that would fry any
Scourge
touching it. The driver sighed, heaved her pack onto her back, and sauntered
after
Maria.

“We need to hurry before that big group heading our way arrives. It
’
ll be hell pushing through them,” Maria called out as she joined the squad gathered around Omondi.

“How does it look?” Omondi asked.

Maria pulled out her pad and handed it over to her commanding officer. As he studied it, she swept her gaze over the
Scourge
encircling the squad. The howls of the approaching horde
roused
them
from their torpor state. Their eyes were darting around, seeking out human prey.