Ripped Open (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  No, everyone felt bad about the whole thing. Except for Cindy. She saw it a bit differently. The rape was unfortunate, but didn’t excuse any wrongdoing on the part of the girls. For that matter, Phoebe shouldn’t be let off the hook in particular for her part in things, either. Even if it was clear that Sinclair had kind of strung the other woman along with her. They were friends, and it was clear that she wanted what was best for her healer buddy. The thing was, and Phoebe actually understood it herself, she was far better off with the IPB than she had been anywhere else in the world. At least since she’d popped.

  The kid had been locked up at twelve for basically not being able to control her mouth. It was one of the counselors in juvie that had figured out that she basically had Tourette’s Syndrome. It wasn’t really that, but it had been enough to get her off the hook for some things. Still, very few people enjoyed being around her. Sinclair and Wren had put up with her for almost three years. That meant, when her friend had left, she’d gone with her.

  Cindy noticed that they’d left Wren behind. It was the right thing to do, and done for that very reason. Sinclair was attractive, blonde and fit. Tall, compared to Cin, as well. A catch, to almost anyone in the world. Her first mode, when it was checked on, was basically that she felt friendly toward most people, unless they were really overloading that by being evil at the moment. In short, she could pass. Her power didn’t come out unless she wanted to use it, and no one would guess anything about her if she wanted to pretend to be normal.

  Phoebe was foul mouthed, but not stupid, or even ugly. She was on the cute side of average, and while she didn’t make much effort that way, had managed to stay thin, which helped with things like that. So, she’d be beaten less often for having a medical condition that a lot of people understood when it was explained, than she would being Infected. Even now, as things had started to get a bit better.

  Wren looked like a blue feathered, yellow beaked, bird girl. It wasn’t a horror show, as far as Cin was concerned. The girl wasn’t going to be walking unmolested in public in a lot of places anytime soon, either. Her friends had realized, if deep inside, that the IPB base was one of the only places in the whole world where their feathered friend would be both accepted and be allowed to rise in the world. Not high maybe, but even that was up to her. The rumor was that she was going to be backing up Tobin Peterson on his next album, which could lead to big things for her.

  Her office door was open, since she normally didn’t close it during the day. That would have made Marcia suspicious, since that was her best thing. Brian was in with the boss at the moment, talking to the President. It was tempting to spy on them, but the bits and pieces she got casually kind of indicated that they were just going over what had happened. For a whole slew of people as well, not just President Lawrence.

  The Joint Chiefs, Cindy was pretty certain on that one. Then, her ability to know for certain was right there, so she checked the idea with Brian’s computer readout, which floated in front of her when she focused on the concept. Why he got a screen instead of a book, she didn’t know, but very smart people that grew up with computers most often had them. He was a genius. Enough to know that the President was actually with his own cabinet. If that was different than the first title, wasn’t spelled out, since Brian didn’t actually know, himself.

  She didn’t eavesdrop for long however, since a man came to her office door. He wasn’t anyone that she actually knew, though she had read his story before. It had been distracting at the time, so she’d bothered to spent some effort on it. The guy was extremely kind and gentle, but from a different reality. Supposedly he also looked exactly like one of their people there. Sure Shot, from Team One.

  This one was called Jake, even though that wasn’t his real name. It had been picked up nearly a hundred years before, in the Zombie Wars. Because, where he came from the Infected didn’t exist, but the walking dead were a real thing. Or had been. He’d helped destroy them all. Only after almost everyone had died though, unfortunately.

  Looking up she grinned.

  “Hey. Jake, isn’t it?” She read that part from his head, and got a friendly nod in return.

  “That’s me. You’re Cindy?” From the words above him, the man wasn’t asking if she was herself, but rather if it was all right to call her that. Given they didn’t really know each other.

  “That or Cin, if you like. What can I do for you?” He wasn’t standing there for his health, or to ask for a date, she didn’t think. The book above his head, which was an actual paper looking thing, though not hand written, wasn’t actually telling her much. Just that he had a secret. One that he needed to share with her.

  Part of it had to do with her powers, of course. She was about to dig for more data, when he started to speak. The words over his head matched it perfectly, which was unusual. It probably had to do with him being hyper focused, but not meditating. Not that she was certain of that one.

  “Would you like to have dinner with me?” He smiled, and it was charming enough. He looked to be about her age, and while he had a large nose, that wasn’t a thing she actually disliked in a man.

  “So you did come for a date? About time someone around here noticed me.” She managed to sound a bit bland, but not bitter about it all. It was probably a few months too soon for that kind of thing. No one should actually trust her yet.

  Jake nodded, and smiled as he turned away a little bit. The words over his head were indicating he was feeling a little bit shy, though that didn’t stop him from going on.

  “Yes. I’d like to talk to you? I didn’t know that you’d be here. Skollu didn’t mention that part to me. I mean, you weren’t here, when she was looking, so it was probably that. This place is kind of wild that way. People coming together that I know from my world?”

  Cindy got the basic idea, and even who she was in his life, complete with a picture, which honestly was her. Except a bit prettier. Not that much, but enough to be noticed. It was in the shape of the face, but most people would have been confused.

  “I’m your wife? I mean the other me… Interesting. So, figured on getting the matrimonial hookup in a strange land? I don’t think it works that way. Still, if doing yourself from a different world is masturbation, then that has to count. Think your wife will mind?” She winked at him, being playful about it all. Expecting to see shock, at least inside, instead of just him being happy to hear the words. Even if he did get she was only goofing around with him.

  “Colleen? Not really. Half the women I’ve slept with over the last eighty years she dropped in bed with us. I think you honestly would fall inside her rules that way. I also have a request?”

  That part was about Mickey. Their world’s version of him. She’d read him before, and he wasn’t in with the people attacking them as a replacement, or planning to betray them directly. She’d processed a lot of people that day however, so might have missed something.

  Jake shook his head, smiling a bit.

  “It might be nothing at all. I mean, infinite worlds means that everything possible happens. So things that seem strange might come up from time to time. But… It turns out that I’m actually Doug Tibs from another world. Also Mickey Robson, which is my real name, so… There shouldn’t be two of me from here, right?” His smile lit up a bit, leaving her feeling a bit better about things than not.

  The sense of things being all right came off of the man in waves. It was kind of complete and whole feeling, now that she was actually standing near him. It was a thing that no one had really mentioned to her. Nearly a power, after a fashion. A soft one, but something needed in the world. Which had to be powerful enough, if she were thinking that goodness and light were the way things should be, after just sitting behind her desk with the man in front of her.

  “I can do a check up on that. From here. Not that it wouldn’t be nice to share a meal? Plus, I hear that your wife is cool? That sounds like a story I’d love to go over.” The important stuff, about other world her.
/>   Jake smiled at her, his entire being lighting up as he did it.

  “Great! Seven, in the restaurant? Brian lent me a suit. They insist we dress up to eat over there, as if it isn’t in the same room as the rest of it? I don’t want to make people think I don’t care about them though, so dress up I will.” He meant it, but was gently reminding her that she’d need to do the same. Not that anyone would insist, but the people working there really would feel off about things if she walked in dressed up to hit the gym.

  “Sounds great. I’ll get to that other thing you want first. Hopefully it’s nothing. If it is…” Well, then she was going to be pissed. After all, she’d read Mickey before, and he’d checked out. If she hadn’t gotten that, she could have missed a lot of stuff. Not that she hadn’t, but she was getting by on the idea that she was useful.

  That meant doing more than missing things like that. Doug was Jake, and Jake was, clearly, Mickey. They were a world short for that to actually work.

  Thinking that she looked a lot like Colleen, and had her work face on, Jake waved and left without saying anything else. That meant she had about two hours, or a little less, to break the whole thing open. That part wasn’t as easy as it should have been.

  The problem wasn’t actually that either Jake, or Mickey, were spies or enemies. Doug either. They were all exactly what they seemed like they should be. The issue came with Mickey Robson’s parents. They were still alive, and living in Arizona. The dad was in insurance, and the mother ran a small hobby flower shop that barely turned a profit most years.

  The interesting thing was that they, both of them, were from another reality. The same one, which made it easier to understand. There were people in their world that were like them, and of course, they were Doug’s parents, if from a different reality.

  It had happened about thirty-three years before that point, when they’d both been flying in an anti-grav, over a city called Portsmith. Then there was a flash of light, and they ended up going down over Portland, Oregon. Bill, the husband, managed to get the craft under control enough to land it safely, but it became clear pretty quickly that they’d been caught in something that wasn’t normal. A portal to another world, probably created by an Infected person, from the new place they’d found themselves. It certainly hadn’t been the technology of the new world, which was archaic and primitive at best.

  It had been hard for them at first, but with a bit of cleverness they managed to get papers saying they belonged there, and had started life in the slightly technologically backwards place that they’d found themselves. Eventually, about eight years later, they had a son.

  That was all.

  No plot to take over, or invasion plan. No dark secret or horrible crime spree. Just an accident, and a desire not to be arrested for being themselves.

  Mickey didn’t even know about it. Not even a hint of oddness about his parents had ever crossed his mind, even though it really did exist. They both saw it all the time, even if no one else got it. The two had been stuck in a strange place and hadn’t felt the need to bother their child with the idea. Especially since they didn’t have a way to get back.

  What it wasn’t then, was her being wrong. To Cindy that was the important part of things.

  The rest was fine with her. She could deal with this and not rat out Mickey’s parents, she thought. They actually had some neat ideas about things, but they weren’t invaders or trying to harm anything. Just people that came from a world that was more advanced than the one they were in now. That was all.

  Cindy didn’t write the whole thing out, knowing that not having a paper trail would benefit the aliens that had come there more than anything else would. That and a bit of careful jiggering so that no one would ever catch on that they were technically undocumented. Not that she was the one to do that part of things. Really, they had a few other people there that would work better for that level of work.

  The problem with getting Marcia to do it was in her first mode. She could do it and even make it all real, with a few phone calls. She was the head of a federal agency, and had been a secret agent before that.

  She had mad fake ID skills, Cindy didn’t doubt. The other person would be Trivia. The evil Infected woman that had ratted her out to the others as a serial killer, and set her up to be enslaved to the government for the rest of her life. Just to make her own work load easier.

  If that was working for her so far, Cindy didn’t know, but it was clear that she was probably an expert at that kind of thing. Her powers were different than Cin’s though, so if anyone in the world had a given skill, or a piece of information, then she did too. It was a bit better as far as practical matters went than reading stories about people was. In a pinch it would be possible to find the needed material, probably by going to Trivia’s story and looking up who knew that kind of thing, but while she could gain the skill, Bree already had it.

  It meant finding her, and then figuring out how to leverage her to actually do the work and not rat anyone out though. Which, for Cindy, took about ten minutes. It would have been faster, but the woman had been in the bathroom, showering, and away from her cell. So as soon as she came out Cindy made it ring.

  “Hi Cindy… I think I can set that up. Not a problem. They seem nice.” Then, without giving anyone a chance to even say hello back, she hung up. Her story told of her not being that busy, as she sauntered around her very large, incredibly nice mansion. She would need to get to one of her work rooms however, which might take a while. The pictures of the place were wild.

  It was huge, for a house, having at least sixteen rooms, and was decorated as nicely as anything Cindy had ever heard of. Worse, the woman had been doing something, and seemed a bit younger and prettier than she had the last time they’d met.

  Which, from the words over the other woman’s head, was all about stealing Brian back from Karen. She loved him after all, and had, off and on, for longer than Cindy had been alive.

  “Because, of course, that makes sense. It was probably a time travel thing.” She ignored that for a bit, and worked right up until she had to leave to get ready for dinner.

  Hopefully Jake wasn’t expecting her to be in a slinky little black dress, since the nicest thing she owned was more like a tan business skirt. At least that she could find.

  It occurred to her that she used to have more clothing, once upon a time. Not that long ago.

  Sighing, and trying not to feel bad, she headed out. It was an eating day for her, so she was looking forward to it.

  Chapter six

  Eating in the dining hall really was a lot different when you went across the room to the restaurant portion of things. For one thing, there was almost no one there, since most of the normal Infected people didn’t bother with it for regular meals. There were rules to using the place, and most people didn’t really feel like it was for them. You had to wear nice clothing, for one thing. Makeup too, if you were on Team One.

  In Cin’s case she did it just to impress Jake. A date was a date after all, and treating it as less than that would make it be that way. She looked nice enough that the guy was happy to see her when she walked to the front of the space. He didn’t get up to walk her to the table, instead allowing a rather nicely dressed woman with auburn hair do it instead.

  She smiled, and was welcoming on the outside, and her story wasn’t against Cindy as a rule, though she felt uncertain about her and Jake being there. That was just due to the fact that there was a reporter coming in later to sit with several Team One members. Sure Shot was one of them, and Jake looked identical to the man. That could be confusing.

  Cindy didn’t care about that however. It wasn’t like they were hiding anything. If anyone asked about it, they could just point out that Jake was visiting from a different, very friendly, reality. Technically he didn’t have a visa or anything for that, but there wasn’t one to get, and he was with the government directly, which indicated he wasn’t plotting against them pretty clearly. Especially since a
lot of them there were mind readers. Three or four at any rate. It wasn’t that common of an ability there. Mainly because they only really bothered with the most powerful people that way.

  You could read minds or emotions at a pretty high level and still be a class one, or maybe a class two. Being a class five telepath pretty much meant that the world had no secrets from you. To go beyond that meant, more or less, that you also had the ability to control others, or a second power. That happened a lot at the higher levels, actually.

  Bridget for instance had about a dozen real powers. Super strength, speed, invulnerability, as well as super senses, the ability to fly, and shoot lethal energy blasts. She was even psychic, though no one had really worked with her on that yet. They probably needed to, since if nothing else it would let her earn money on the stock market. So far it just ran info through her subconscious mind about four times an hour.

  Jake stood up as she got closer to the table, his face shining. It wasn’t a real thing, but he beamed, smiling as hard as he was.

  “Cindy! Thanks for coming. Thank you, Sandra.” That was for the hostess, who shifted from mild concern to flirtatious inside a few seconds. She was attractive enough, and while Jake was decent looking, the world didn’t really insist that good men be the best looking person around to be worth paying attention to.

  “Thanks, Jake. I have menus for you, but remember, we can make things for you without too many problems, if you don’t see anything you like. Not everything, but our chefs here are pretty good.” She said that as if there was an infomercial about it coming up soon.

  It was the truth, but probably didn’t need to be pointed out.

  Also, the eye contact was pretty sincere, as she checked out the man with Cindy.