Page 89 of Ruined Omega

I have no desire to be “cured” anymore.

I don’t want to change back. This is who I am now.

Still, Seraph has asked me the question, so I may as well go ahead and tell them all. I take a deep breath, thinking of where to start.

Before I can speak, however, a heavy thud vibrates through the room. It sounds like a muffled explosion that rattles and vibrates the floor.

“Shit,” Lily gasps. “Did you feel that?”

I nod, concern mounting behind my chest.

“It sounded like an explosion,” Sloane says. As a former marine, she would know about that kind of thing.

“Are we under attack?” I ask, not even trying to hide the worry in my voice. “Like, are we being bombed?”

“Impossible,” Lily says. “This room is too deep beneath the old SynerGen building. We’re completely protected down here.”

“That didn’t sound like it came from above anyway,” Sloane says. “It sounds like it came from this level…” Her face drops and her eyes go wide. “Oh shit, the old sewers!”

Before we have a chance to react, another explosion rocks the room.

This time, however, it is not muffled.

Not at all.

A huge fireball erupts from the wall, lighting the temple with a hot orange glow. Even from a distance, the heat that washes over my naked skin is intense. Chunks of ruined metal rain down around us. The fireball billows upward, revealing a gaping, smoking hole in the wall.

“We’re under attack!” Sloane screams over the roar of the explosion.

Half a second later, a flood of bodies comes pouring through the opening. By their twisted, misshapen limbs, I know what they are.

“Farlanders?” Lily gasps. “Here?”

But the fact that a small army of Farlanders has taken it upon themselves to invade the deepest heart of the Zone isn’t even the biggest surprise.

“Oh God,” I whisper. “They’ve got guns…”

CHAPTER 30: HINES

The Farlanders spill into the room, fanning out as they go. Immediately they start shooting. The chamber fills with the flickering strobe of automatic gunfire. The acoustics of the big room amplify the crack-crack-crack of the guns.

“Get down,” Sloane shouts.

We all crouch as bullets whiz and whistle overhead. A few of them ricochet off the walls and off the metallic orb of the source. My chest tightens with panic.

Luckily, however, these Farlanders have about as good an aim as the stormtroopers in Star Wars. All of their shots fly wild.

The other Alphas are on their feet and ready for battle. In fact, they all were as soon as the wall exploded. With unnatural agility, they feint and dodge the bullets and charge the attackers, tearing into the first wave with like a tide of fangs and violence.

Within all of three seconds, the Temple of the Source has fallen into utter chaos.

“Hines!”

My heart jolts as a huge pair of arms bundle around me. I’m shoved to the floor. My body is covered by a huge mass of muscle.

“I’ll protect you,” Tal shouts.

I see Canaris and Baen race past as they throw themselves into the fray.