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

by P. S. Power

  “Are we sending food orders with this world’s Tor? Brian, isn’t it? In my world, you’re my brother. Don’t be too amazed, I have a lot of them. Sisters as well, come to that.” Her voice was higher pitched than Cindy’s but not too annoying to listen too, thankfully.

  Proxy laughed a bit and then winked at her.

  “I have no clue who you are here. If I’ve met you, then you look different. Then, I wouldn’t have guessed that Cindy was Tim here, so what do I know?”

  That got Troy to stare for a bit and shake his head.

  “See, and I was going to ask if you were single. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time that I ended up in bed with a girl that was also a guy.”

  It was a bit bold, to say it that way, and didn’t bother her. Taman however, pushed his arm.

  “She isn’t. They’re very different people. Also, there’s a child present. That might be acceptable in parts of my world, but we don’t know that it is here, do we? Or did you check that first?” She sounded a bit forceful and a little bossy, but not so much that it came across as mean. More like it was calculated carefully to turn any ire in her direction, giving her a chance to manage things, if it had actually been a misstep.

  So Cindy snorted a bit, laughing through her nose. It was a bit nerdy, but came across as cute enough.

  “Single. Datable. That was… Well, a bit off, but not too bad. Also, not a guy, unless Taman makes a mistake? I’d rather avoid that one, for the time being. Nothing against men, but I’m not one, so…”

  That got nods all around, including from Sara, who actually understood the conversation. She was young, but knew what sex was, and that Troy had been suggesting that he do that with Cindy. She also figured that it would be all right. Cindy was old, and could tell him no, which was important.

  She was too little for that, and her no didn’t count.

  Cin corrected those words instantly.

  “Nope. Your yes doesn’t count when it comes to sex. Because you’re too young. Your no always counts.” Sara registered that part, and nodded, since it was clear her mind was being read.

  Oddly enough, the rest of them understood the basic idea as well. Troy nodded openly, however.

  “That’s right. Until you get older. Otherwise I’ll have to come and make anyone doing that with you stop.” The words and pictures in his head were suddenly gruesome.

  Filled with blood, and people dying. At his hands, for harming children. It was graphic and kind of epic.

  In other words, Cindy decided, the man was going to be getting lucky later, if he wanted. With her.

  “Yep. Just like that. Anyway, Brian… I don’t know that I need to eat, but you should see about our friends here? Troy is leaving, but if you want something first? Maybe you should take him to the dining hall. After all, if we have good food, he might want to come back more often? Also, we can… Date? I was serious about the being single thing.”

  He nodded, then sighed.

  “Except that I have a girlfriend, and that would be too rude of me, wouldn’t it? Not that she’d mind, but…” It was complicated.

  All relationships were, in the end.

  “All right, fine. We can plot against her later. Now, Sara, what do you think I should do?”

  Brian patted Troy on the back and got him to go along for the free food, chatting about how to explain his open relationships to Cindy. The secret would be just explaining, of course, but Brian bothered to actually listen first, and didn’t seem to think it would be a problem. Not his, at any rate.

  The little girl looked up at the taller, black haired beauty and started to list things off. They were different than what Cindy would have considered.

  “She should be tall. Like Marcia though, not… Timmy?” She spoke the name, not knowing if it was correct for her to call him that, but Timon didn’t even blink at it. Taman smiled, which was friendly.

  “Anything else?”

  A chart came into her mind then, forced to the front, from her subconscious. A set of changes for Cindy that would help her in life and keep her safer.

  “She needs to be made stronger. I can show you how to do that? Speed, too. Then made so she can’t be hurt. Pretty, but not too much, so that people won’t pay bad attention to her. Heal faster. That should be the beginning.” The tiny girl reached up, slowly and took Taman’s hand, just as they got to medical, since the woman might be scared. She was in a different world after all, and didn’t seem to know anyone really.

  What Taman felt was impressed.

  “That… You can show me how to make her stronger? How?”

  That got a smile from the kid.

  “I’ll change, and then you can just copy what I do that way. That’s how your power works. It’s easy. Here… Or, wait, I need to take my clothes off. Only… I need to get Lobo and Felicia…”

  Tim didn’t know what to do, but got that he was going to be left out for a bit, while the little girl did whatever she had in mind. Playacting, most likely, but the people there were impressive, so he wasn’t going to count her out. Especially since she was right. That was how Taman would be working. Finding a pattern and placing it on the new people.

  Cindy, having been around for a bit, just borrowed the desk phone and called in for Soar and Lobo to meet them at medical, asap. You had to know how the system worked, since there were codes, so she copied the knowledge from Marcia, but that let her put an announcement out over the speakers in the gym for them. They were both still there, after all.

  Then she, Wren, Sara and Taman got an exam room to themselves. The place smelled like every hospital ever. A combination of disinfectant and ozone, to her nose. The little girl, tan skinned and dark haired, stripped her clothing off, and then changed quickly.

  Growing taller, but a bit curvier at the hip and breast than she had going on with her new form. The internal stuff altered a bit as well. The strength wasn’t as high as what Bridget had going on, but the invulnerability was better. The speed was lower, since it was basically a copy of Marcia’s powers. Not exactly, but pretty close. The part where it wasn’t exact was on purpose too. She’d added a few things, and made it a bit weaker, on purpose, since otherwise Marcia wouldn’t be able to trust her that much, later.

  Taman held her hand, and then closed her eyes.

  “Ah! That’s brilliant. Yes, we should try that. The eyes could be a bit different. Blue, not green. The facial shape… And we should add in better senses. Hunger, as well. I can take that from my own pattern for her. That would actually be a very good test for me, Sara. We can undo it later, if she doesn’t like it. You should watch what I do. Have you ever considered learning magic? It’s pretty useful. I think you’d be a natural at it.”

  Then, as if it made sense, she had Cindy lie on the paper covered table, so she could be comfortable, and started in on working, instantly. That meant no talking, since what she really did was just stand there, for about three hours.

  Brian came in with food for everyone, but Taman couldn’t eat at the moment, and Cindy kind of had a feeling that the slow thoughts that were invading her body wouldn’t want her to get up and start jogging around, or consuming things. The level of focus was intense. Even Hobbs didn’t go into that kind of thing most days.

  Cindy, for her part, was bored out of her mind. Still, she stayed there, and waited, on the off chance that Wren could be helped, too.

  Finally, after nearly five hours, Taman stepped back, smiled, and pulled a small bit of jewelry from around her neck. It looked like a flat bit of white glass, with a glowing green man on it. It was unique and kind of lovely, Cin thought.

  “The moment of consequence then. This healing amulet will allow you to make major changes, very quickly. If I did it right. If not…”

  Cindy knew that one. It was the problem with anything like that.

  “If it’s too wrong, then I’ll die. Which is why I went first. Shall we?”

  Wren looked worried, but nodded. The floating words in her story spoke of
how brave Cindy was, making sure that she didn’t die, by trying it herself first.

  It was a bit more selfish than that, but Cindy grabbed the healing thing, and waited. At first nothing much seemed to happen, but then her skin, and even better, the inside of her whole body, down to her bones and even inside them, started to both tingle and itch. That part grew, as she sat there, trying not to move. Finally, just as she was about to not be able to take it anymore, about ten minutes later, it started to fade, until nothing seemed to be happening at all.

  Except that Taman had been unbuttoning her clothing, as the changes took place.

  She was the same size height wise still, and nearly skeletal looking. Her hips pushed out in a way that would have made an anorexic totally happy, and she could count ribs under her shirt, along the sides. In the mirror however, things didn’t look that bad, actually. Her breasts were huge, being at least a full size larger than they had been, possibly more than that, and while she felt more slender, Taman was assessing that her total weight was actually the same.

  She wasn’t any taller yet, either, since that would take time, if she didn’t want to be too thin to bear. What had really taken place then was her body composition altering into a new form. That hadn’t happened with Sara, but her powers obviously pulled mass from someplace else, at need. Cindy was going to have to eat something, if she didn’t want to fade away.

  “Neat. Now I look like a super model!” Which was really close to true. Too skinny, but perfectly so. At least if you had unrealistic ideas about female beauty. On the good side, while she might need to eat more now, she could pack on the pounds nearly as well as anyone, if she tried hard enough. Her face was differently shaped, and good looking, but only a bit more so than she had been her entire life.

  Marcia didn’t gain weight easily, but she kind of had an eating problem. That was mainly because she couldn’t feel hunger, or taste food. Taste was an unknown so far, but Cindy was starving, so that part would be easy enough to work with.

  Wren was impressed, but didn’t know what she’d be allowed to be like. To that end, Sara tried to mimic a Korean girl, running off to look up what that looked like on a computer first. She carefully didn’t suggest that they go with the same level of strength or speed for her, Cin noticed. Mainly because Wren wasn’t one of her people. That meant not letting her be too big, or tough made sense. In case they ever had to fight her. So she cleverly tried to suggest the girl be made cute, and stay little.

  Cindy smiled and shook her head a bit. Her military blouse had been unbuttoned to make room, and the t-shirt she had under that, which had been a little loose before, still was. At her middle. Her shoulders were nearly ripping it to shreds, and her bust line strained underneath it, showing that her nipples were now basically weapons. Which was only true if they were moving fast enough. Then, if she was charging a person, she could literally put an eye out with one of them.

  Taman drank some water, then looked around the white and blue clinic style space.

  “Oh, I was supposed to be observed? Was that done?”

  Cindy took a moment and found that Timon was the one being watched. He was having an issue with both Lobo and Soar however. That was due to how they’d been affected by the Infection. Lobo’s system was requiring him to have armor, for instance. Timon got around that by copying part of what Lauren had going on, and making the man into a shape shifter. It was incredibly complex, pulling that off, but he sort of convinced the Infection that it was enough. Almost like he were bargaining with an intelligent thing.

  Felicia however, needed to have the ability to fly. Her body wasn’t going to allow her to change, at first, until the man rather cleverly taught her how to generate a force field that would allow her to do that. To fly through the air with a thought. Then the changes came in quickly enough.

  Interestingly, the tiny woman that was left over, after the Pterodactyl wings and beak were gone, looked nearly identical to Taman. Which meant incredibly good looking. Almost enough to seem fake. Like CGI that was a little bit too smooth to be real. It wasn’t that the man thought that the girl was his sister from a different reality or anything, either. He just used her as a template for her appearance, since she was cute enough, he figured.

  Felicia had no internal record of what she was supposed to have been, that he could find, so he made one up for her. Small in the end, like women in that world were, but taller than her current mass allowed at the moment. So like Tobin, she had some growing to do. Cin, too, she realized.

  While he was finishing that up, Wren had her work done, by Taman. There were no new powers being experimented with, so it went faster than Cindy’s change had.

  When she was done, the girl was still infected, but didn’t want to eat anything too strange, and was probably an eight out of ten, as far as looks went. Cindy was in about the same range now, which was an improvement for her too, if not as big of a jump as what Wren had undergone. Her beak and feathers had been replaced by a nice nose, a regular if full lipped mouth, and straight black hair, that hit her shoulders.

  She was even the same size as before, so didn’t look like she was wearing the Hooter’s girl version of an IPB uniform. Tim came out, standing next to a decently put together Italian seeming man, and a tiny version of his already little sister. Then he focused on Cin and Wren for a bit, checking the work, before nodding.

  “Not bad. You’ll need to eat a lot more, Cindy. Five meals a day, for a while. Don’t slack off either, since you’re already starting to grow. My guess is that part will take a year to come in. Now, I think that we’re due to go back home soon? Troy mentioned being back in ten hours, which should have already happened.”

  It was true, but nothing to be concerned about. Brian could get them home, in a pinch. Before that was needed though, Troy came back anyway, looking a bit sheepish.

  “Sorry about that. I was stuck working late at Lesser Shia. I blame Eve for that one. She came through with two frozen yogurt machines. The things are huge. By the time we had them set up, I was late.” He seemed to mean how sorry he was, but neither of the wizards did more than smile over it. In their world, if you said you’d be someplace at a given time, that could mean up to several hours’ difference in when you actually arrived.

  Normally being later than you claimed.

  Felicia tilted her head cutely, then, and for what seemed like the first time, tried to speak.

  “I used to like that. Frozen yogurt. My mom took me when I was little. That was… A long time ago now. Oh! I can speak. I haven’t been able to for… God, six years now? Seven? This is so wonderful! Thank you!” That got Timon a hug, which just about pressed her face into his crotch. Thankfully she looked like his sister, which meant he was able to kneel down and hug her without embarrassing himself.

  It went on for a long time, and it was kind of clear that Felicia wasn’t going to let go first. Finally, Cindy put her arms out.

  “We might need to let him go for the time being? Can you come back? I’m sure that others will want your help. You could move here, say? Both of you? Or visit. Whichever works best for you? Seriously though, you have rooms here, if you want them? You too, Troy.”

  Timon smiled at her, and sighed.

  “We can’t, of course. Move. There’s too much going on back home for that. We can come back, if you need us to? You know how to reach us, right Cindy? Troy, you’re planning to take her up as a girlfriend? That means you’ll be in and out of here several times a week.”

  For his part, Troy just shook his head.

  “Once a week? At least for anything fun. I have to work, after all. Call it… Yeah, seven days from now?”

  Cindy nodded, reading about why he really wouldn’t be around more than that. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to date her or anything either. His girlfriend would just know each time, and not have sex with him until the scent of another woman was off of him. Which took about six showers and three days. Hilda had a really good sense of smell, it seemed.
>
  “We can do that. Now, I need to get Sara and Lauren ready for our trip.” The little girl was still there, near Felicia, since they were about the same size now. They had been before, but now the other girl wasn’t nearly as scary seeming. The razor sharp beak had been a little too much for Sara.

  Now it was like they could maybe be friends.

  Sara turned to look at her anyway, seeming frightened, instead of happy. That lingered, but they didn’t talk about it until the people from other worlds had gone into the little red hut that stood alongside the main office building.

  That left a tidy group there still. Wren, Felicia, and Lobo, along with Sara and herself.

  Cin glanced at Lobo and then his rather normal looking fingers. He was flesh colored now, instead of lavender, and had regular appendages instead of claws. His hair was brown and thick, and he looked nice, but like a man you might pass just walking down the street, anywhere in America.

  “We need to get a new name for you, Lobo. How about… Keith?” She’d always liked that name, for some reason.

  His real name, once upon a time, had been Lester, of all things, but he hated that with a passion. It was the real reason he’d never told anyone his real name. Lester Bayless. From Maine.

  Cindy smiled at him.

  “Keith Bayless? That’s not too bad.”

  The man gave her a funny look, then smiled, his face moving freely for the first time in over a decade and a half. He’d been fifteen when he popped. Now he was thirty, but looked about twenty-five or so. He was fit, and a bit on the muscular side.

  “Fine. I can run with that. Just keep the rest of it secret?”

  She nodded, and looked straight ahead, as they went inside to see the boss.

  “Yup. Just like what you do in bed, that secret is safe with me.”

  It was a bit adult, saying that with Sara right there, but the girl ignored that part, being too worried about other things. Mainly that there was a trip planned.

  Which, in her world, meant she was being sent away. Probably to a much worse place than the IPB base. That was the pattern in her life.