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

by P. S. Power

  Marcia, being so hard core that she’d lost her mind, years before, decided that they needed to walk the entire route that would be taken. That meant they had to jog, since Cin needed to get to her afternoon appointment with Sara. The kid didn’t know where to go after classes even, so it would be important for her to be available for that part.

  Not that she wanted to play mommy to a little kid. Still, that they all trusted her enough to do that kind of thing was a big deal. Marcia hadn’t even considered for a second that she might hurt the girl, or kill her to reduce the threat. The Director had considered it, but not for too long. Killing children really wasn’t her thing, after all.

  Everyone else had an easier time on their run than she did. At least until Doug got the idea and made her lighter, so she could keep up a nifty thirty mile per hour pace with them. Agent Burkes got that treatment too, though Tibs was actually just running, under his own power. At full weight. That got her to decide to get some upgrades herself, if there was ever time.

  It was too big of a boost to ignore, really.

  On the great side, they were back by three-thirty, which was when Lauren had decided the day was going to end. She was ready for it to be over, but not for any real reason. Working with kids, even good ones, took its toll. That was all. So, just as the woman was about to try and find out what was next, working in the tiny base library, since it was almost always empty, Cindy arrived, and waved.

  “Hey! From now on you’re supposed to come find me after class, kiddo. I should be in my office most of the time, unless I meet you wherever you are. Right now… I think it’s time to invade the kitchen for a snack. You need to change first. Into your disguise? The one from yesterday?” As opposed to the orc, or the tiny girl. She was, as far as Cindy knew, the smallest one.

  It could have been seen as rude, asking her to do that, but the girl nodded, and walked with her, thinking about changing into her grown up clothes again, since Karen hadn’t taken them back yet.

  Cindy shook her head.

  “Nope. Disguise time. We need fatigues for you. So, off to the depot first.” That was a plain building, and no one worked there full time, so Sara changed there, getting a complete set of things for later, which were all dropped off at her room. She really did look about thirteen or so. Made up for a night on the town too. If she were her daughter, the girl would be scaling that part back a bit.

  The thought got her to stop for a minute and then shake her head. For one thing, she sounded like her own mother, dictating fashion from twenty years out of date. For the other… She was the grownup.

  “Um… can you tone down the makeup a bit? A girl, even a cute one, can’t get away with that look. Not without people thinking we don’t care about you. We all do, so, you understand, we have to set appearances. Also, remember, you aren’t Infected. Not in this form. That means you can’t use any powers. I mean, I want you to have them each time, but unless a real attack comes, don’t use anything. In that case… If something starts to happen, run away. Slowly. Like anyone would. Do you get the idea?”

  There was a moment when the cutie next to her made a face. It looked a bit obstinate, but the words over her head weren’t about the trouble of changing, which she did instantly. It was disbelief that anyone really cared about her. That was all. She minded very well however, and was a bit surprised when Cin coached her into changing part of the look back a bit.

  “I didn’t say you couldn’t look pretty… Just that you aren’t going to an award banquet right now, that’s all. That’s about right. You seem professional, and like your mother makes you wear that stupid uniform, instead of real girl clothing. I just want you to blend at a distance, that’s all.”

  There was a nod, and a bit of hope that she might have actually made a friend. If one that was a dangerous killer. Though that had changed. Not that anyone couldn’t be dangerous to you. She knew that one already. She had for years.

  “Thank you, Cindy. Um… Can I watch cartoons? I normally do now.”

  She made a considering face and then shrugged.

  “Probably. I mean, today you’ll miss them, but we can DVR your shows for you, so that you can watch them in the evenings. Right now we need to get with Mark and see what he wants done. Since he’s the boss of you and all that.” She grinned, and winked at the girl who had startling green eyes. “Remember that part. Rachel, Mark, Lauren and me, are the boss of you. No one else is, unless they have good advice, like duck, or no, don’t touch the nuclear weapon. Things like that. If they want to touch you, you know, kiss or hug you with no clothes on? Then you need to come and tell one of us immediately. Probably Mark, since he’s the nice one. Then he can come and tell me if I get to kill them or not.” Because that was her job, as far as the girl knew. Enforcer of the rules.

  The one that would kill people for doing the wrong thing.

  It meant she was both scary and pretty interesting, at least to the blonde girl next to her.

  Sara simply nodded, somberly, since the rules were a lot different than she’d ever heard before. In other places she’d been told some similar things. Like she was supposed to tell if adults touched her in bad places. Except that wasn’t real. If you told, you were just spanked for it and then called a liar. There though, at the base...

  Cindy nodded.

  “You have a real home, and real people. Lots of us. A family. One that you can’t get rid of all that easily. Oh, you’ll want to eventually, but it’s not happening. Now, let’s get this stuff put away and see about raiding Mark’s space. I think he’s working recipes for his cooking show. That has to be food rich. If not, we can do it ourselves. I happen to have the ability to open cans and everything.”

  Sara giggled, hitting it just about right to make it seem like a good natured thing. Not like a tiny girl though. She even covered her mouth with her hand, to hide her perfect teeth. Which was mainly a thing that she’d learned from television, but thought would work well with the body she was wearing at the moment. That kind of thing hadn’t come up before, since orcs weren’t real. Teen girls were, and there was a natural tendency for her to match what would fit for how she looked at the moment.

  Reading about it, Cindy was glad they had a plan in place. Also that they’d kept her from looking twenty, since it would be a lot harder to keep her from having sex if she were too old. At thirteen, well, that was normal. Even not letting her date would be, so it fit. The trick there would be holding her age at the right levels for what she needed.

  She could mimic things pretty well, but her actual knowledge base was only that of a little kid, otherwise. Luckily, she got time to learn it all.

  Mark wasn’t in the kitchen, though he was in a kitchen. The one that had been built for his show. They had a separate space for the actual production to be done in, but that day he was in the back, with Warren, Denis and Kerry. Off to the side of the room, wearing cute little aprons that were all white, were Prime, Tobin and Jason. Mark was with them, showing them how to make puff pastry.

  When they walked up, the men blinked at them, only one of them recognizing who they were really. Well, Scott knew her, and Jason managed to put a name to the face, but Tobin waved at Sara.

  “Hi! Did you two come to learn how to cook, too?” He was mainly looking at Sara, even though he knew she was too young to flirt with. Which he didn’t do. She did a bit, playing with her hair at him, but not so much that Cin had to mention it.

  The girl sounded like a mini-adult when she answered however.

  “We came for a snack. I don’t really know how to cook though. I should learn sometime.”

  That got Cindy to nod, since it was a real enough life skill.

  “Good thinking. Mark, just in case you missed it, this is Sara. This is her disguise though, so everyone keep that in mind. If she looks like this she doesn’t have any powers, and isn’t Infected. Got it?” It was tempting to assume that the people there wouldn’t get the idea, but everyone that heard kind of did. They figured it was a
safety measure, but were willing to back it. Possibly under torture.

  Prime smiled at the girl, which caught her attention easily enough.

  “Wonderful! We’re meeting here each day for the next few months. Unless we get called away, of course. Today we’re making puff pastry. Do you need something to eat first? I don’t know how much…” It was an interesting call, seeing what he was thinking at the moment. Sara wasn’t supposed to have powers, but she also did, which meant that she might need a lot more food than a regular girl her size would.

  Which was true, since she was also running a big portion of Bridget’s powers at the moment.

  Instead of lying about it, Cindy just shrugged.

  “She needs to eat about like Bridget would. That probably means we should get her used to drinking vegetable oil. I hear that’s pretty bad.” She was joking about it, since both Bridget and Marcia had to do that just to stay fed enough to function. The little girl knew that, having seen it happen, and nodded.

  “I can do that. Bridget gave me some, a few times.” She nearly spoke of her orc form then, but stopped, knowing that she was supposed to keep that part a secret. She wasn’t certain if it was supposed to be a shameful one or not yet. They let her be herself in the morning, and she’d been told that it was all right to be big her then too, if she wanted.

  Meaning that it probably wasn’t that.

  The words weren’t half as dark as they could have been, so Cindy smiled at her.

  “Or we can get you something else this time. Good to be flexible, just in case. I don’t know…” There was noise from behind them, as Denis walked up holding something that looked like a jelly roll. A whole one, that was dusted lightly on the outside with powdered sugar.

  “Hey, people! I need testers for this. Over at the table?”

  Mark cleared his throat then, but smiled. It was a bit drugged looking, but that was due to all the meditation he needed to do in order to stay in normal time.

  “After we finish this and get it in the refrigerator? About ten minutes?”

  He was worried that Sara would be starving to death, possibly in a literal fashion, but she just paid attention and went over things when she was told to. It was a little boring to her, and not cartoons, but there were people around and they kept telling her she was doing a good job. That showed up over her head as being one of the best things possible, so she was fairly happy.

  Then they all ate a lemon filled jelly roll. Cindy only had a single bite, but it tasted fine to her. Good even. Mark acted like the tart filling was a high crime, and Kerry nodded along with that assessment, her freckled face pale under her little white hat. It was funny shaped and round, since it was supposed to trap her hair out of the way.

  “Yeah, Den… This is a bit sharp. I like the fact that you can taste the lemon, but maybe back that off a bit? I know the point was to make certain it wasn’t too sweet…” As they discussed the whole thing, Denis taking actual notes, on paper, Sara finished her slice.

  “It’s good. I like it.” She sounded a bit young then, but practically blushed with pleasure when the words got Prime to covertly slide the rest of the thing over in front of her. Denis nodded at her and waved.

  “Finish that off for us? I’ll start on a new one, I guess? It should be done about the time that you have the first of the pastries cooled.” If that idea bothered him, it didn’t show. Internally he was pleased with the product.

  Yes, Kerry and Mark had been a bit down on the thing, but it was about a single factor. It wasn’t bad even, they just wanted perfect. That was all. A thing that could be served to kings and not seem out of place. That he’d gotten that close on his first try meant that he was actually getting a bit better, he thought. It was a new dish he was trying, so had come out really well to start with.

  Mark, having two new students, since Cindy was being added to the thing, like it or not, had them make up more pastry, with Tobin, Prime and Jason teaching them how to do it, as he watched. They made a few mistakes, but she caught them reading about it from Mark’s head, and didn’t walk into the mess that two missteps would have allowed. Mark worked that part out, but kept his mouth shut, other than to make light conversation.

  In the end though, he seemed pleased with them.

  “Not bad! I bet this turns out. Let’s get it in the chill chest for a bit? Really, we need a few hours for that. Now, what kind of filling do we want for these?” He was thinking of a complicated salmon mousse, complete with a photo that hung over his head, showing what that should look like.

  Scott, which was what Prime went by in real life, was considering an apple pie filling, and Sara was dreaming of chocolate cream. That all of them could work was clear though. Tilting her head she shrugged.

  “A beef pot pie filling? Not that I know how to make that. We could do a couple of things up though. A whole meal made of little round pastries?”

  Mark, instead of thinking that was too much work for his little class of newbies, hugged her.

  “Perfect! What do you all have in mind?”

  Then for about two hours, they just worked, each person helping the others on what they wanted to do. Really, none of it was all that hard, and they were set to putting together a third batch of pastry, then rolling the dough into thin sheets, and folding it with very cold, unsalted butter. Mark was brilliant however, when it came to food, and by the time they were done, just before dinner, they had an array of things that looked, and tasted, good enough that they got to take them to the real dining hall, which was one building over, for people to eat if they wanted.

  Sara was excited by it, though starting to wind down a little bit for the day.

  Thankfully Bridget came to take over, just as they sat down for the meal. A lot of what was on her tray was made up of the things that they’d come up with, which meant that Bridget was eating that for her own meal. Along with some burgers and fries.

  Sara pointed at the things though, and looked darling.

  “We made those. For cooking class?”

  Bridget, being bold, ate one of them, which had the salmon mousse in it, and then smiled.

  “Pretty good! I can’t cook at all, myself. They all seem to think I’ll burn the place down. Which is silly. The kitchen is where I keep all my food, so I kind of need it. Now, Sara, what are we doing after dinner? We can do whatever you want. Today at least. Play with dolls? Learn to hack computer programs? Go to medical and see if Doctor Burrows will let us do minor surgery on people?”

  She wasn’t actually kidding about doing those things, and Cindy nearly put her foot down, by reflex, but then stopped, and tilted her head. All of those were things that could actually come up in both girls lives. Learning about them wasn’t a horrible thing, really.

  So she just nodded a bit, as Olga looked on, picking up more of the English than she had the last time that Cin had checked.

  “Computer skills are good. You should do that.” Then she glanced away, embarrassed for some reason. It was her first mode, so everyone ignored that part.

  Next to them Tobin, looking perfect and tiny still, but like a real man, made a face.

  “I… Should learn how to do that, too. I can look up things online, but that’s about all right now. Kerry?” He was about to ask if they could put off what they had planned, to do that together, which she was gearing up to take the wrong way.

  Thinking that Tobin wanted to spend time with Sara and Bridget alone. For sex. Sure, Sara was too young, but Bridget was totally into him, and now that he was better looking, it wouldn’t take her long to throw herself at him. Sara… Well, she looked old enough, for her world. Kerry had been married at ten, after all. So to her it seemed, at least on some level, like the little girl would be doing things like that soon. Even if she knew consciously that it wasn’t going to happen there. More, she got that Tobin wouldn’t have touched her, regardless.

  “Um… We’re supposed to… meet up with Georgia?” The list keeper knew who was on schedule for that day af
ter all.

  It was important too, so she nodded.

  “No big thing. Why don’t you girls go and see about the medical stuff today. Then tomorrow you can get with Tobin and Kerry for hacking classes? Though, I don’t know who does that kind of thing here.” She really didn’t.

  Bridget had a clue, since one of the military guys was well trained for that sort of thing, and willing to share the basics with them. She was keeping that secret for the time being however, given the man was sort of hinting that they could possibly date as well. He was in his mid-twenties, but Bridget was technically legal. Dating now though, so she didn’t know what was really allowed, relationship wise.

  It wasn’t a thing that she’d done before.

  Kerry wasn’t going to be easily mollified, since she was dead certain that Tobin would lose interest in her now. Which he actually wasn’t going to. Oh, he wanted to bang every woman in the place, including Cindy, but that wasn’t the same as him not liking Kerry. Which really should have worked for her. She wasn’t jealous about sex at all. It was the rest of it that she wasn’t up on though. Kind of like Bridget. They both had relationships, but had barely seen what a real one looked like.

  It meant that a large mess was about to come of a lot of things, if no one stepped in to fix them.

  Which, thankfully, wasn’t her job. Not that she wanted the kids to suffer, but they had to work out the basic things on their own. Like everyone else in the world. On the good side, she got a bit of time off finally. At least she figured that she might. Right until Marcia came walking up, and patted her on the outside of her right arm, standing behind her.

  “Cindy? I have some things for you, before you turn in for the night? In my office.”

  She didn’t let herself sigh, or moan, just standing up. She hadn’t eaten that much, not really needing to for that meal. Leaning over she gave Sara a hug, which meant she had to do the same for Bridget, and then Kerry. Tobin didn’t even try for one, though it was clear he wanted that kind of thing, too. It was also kind of apparent that Kerry would have figured it was a sign of the coming apocalypse if he had.