The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  On nine he ran to his room and changed fast, then returned to the elevator, where Marcia stood staring at him.

  “Well... shit. I told them not to let you go. Looks like they worked you over a bit. What's the plan?”

  “Go to the armory, get weapons, get away from here where people keep betraying me, and find some place defensible. Try to take as many of those monsters with me as I can. That's all I got.” He shrugged. It really was his only plan.

  Her head bobbed and she stepped into the elevator with him. He looked at her, a question in his face.

  She grinned. “Fuckers came to my home, tried to kill my friends, and now want to kill my teammate. Screw that, I'm going with you.”

  Brian hugged her, a tear coming to his eye. “No, Marcia... Something is really wrong here. Lady Glory... I think she may be a spy or traitor. Did you notice how she keeps trying to get me killed? This is like three or four times now, even though I saved her life twice. There could be others. I need you to stay and try to find out what's going on...”

  She shook her head and snorted. “LG... she's not a traitor. I admit, I don't know what she's been doing in regards to you, but traitor? Nah. Still, if that's what you want, I'll look into it and won't stop until I have the truth. Whatever that is.”

  The police had stolen his own knife and gun, taken it without his permission, never planning on giving them back, so warrant or not, theft. He wondered how they'd gotten a judge to sign off on something like that? Anyone with a law degree should be able to tell that the arrest didn't have merit. Really, if they had a brain at all, that should have been enough. Were they in on trying to have him killed for some reason? He couldn't think of another way to spin the whole thing, but had to admit that he didn't have enough information to go on.

  Brian got to the armory and slipped on body armor first, just a vest, then put on two hand guns and loaded a large black duffel bag with ammo and the same fifty caliber he'd used the day before. He had to sling it over his shoulders, because the whole thing weighed near a hundred pounds all together, with ammo. He grabbed a lot of that. He picked up a knife too, just in case things came down to that, and grabbed a helmet, which he slipped on, then took time to adjust, the little harness inside having been too loose for him. The last person to wear it apparently had a bigger head than he did. Or more hair at least.

  When he walked out of the small cement building, he could see the lights from the police cars at the front gate. So they had managed to figure out where he might go. That or he was a moron and they'd come to apologize.

  About forty cars were arrayed in a semi circle. He took cover behind a low berm set up to redirect any explosions from the armory away from the main building or the front gate. The base was thick-looking gray cement and the whole thing was covered with several feet of dirt, domed over the top of the wall a little for extra strength. So, about as defensible as he'd get, it seemed. Too close to the base, but time had run out.

  Brian set up the powerful machine gun carefully, far enough away that no one seemed to notice the activity. Once in place, big weapon trained on the lead police car, Brian pulled one of the hand guns and got ready. If they moved on the gate, he'd end them. If possible. The hand gun...

  Too many times now, the people here had let him down. If they tried to help the police against him, or take him again, he'd fight. It wouldn't work, too many here had powers no regular person could match, even with guns and armor, but that wouldn't keep him from trying. Not now. It was the end after all.

  The rules kind of stopped applying.

  Nothing happened for a long time, they just sat waiting, probably for dark, or for him to get tired. It would probably work too. No sleep and too little food over the last day didn't put him in a great position at the moment. The half hour of being hit in the head by the cop in the car didn't help either, leaving him aching and a little fuzzy mentally. Probably a mild concussion. If it got too bad he'd have to start things himself. Their plan only worked if he couldn't bring the battle to them. Right now, in this situation, he could.

  Brian felt the helicopter coming in from behind him and readied himself. The thump from the blades so strong it reverberated in his chest cavity. Crap. They'd managed to get behind him from the air, low enough that the hills and buildings acted as cover. He didn't have long now then. Taking a deep breath he centered himself, just like he used to do before playing Halo. Letting go of everything, Brian looked down the sights and slowly squeezed the trigger.

  He started to at least, then a wash of blue came over him from behind, compassion stopping him for a moment. But it didn't stop him from rolling out of the way. He came up on his feet, running at Lady Glory full-bore, sidearm in his hand, picked up as he rolled over it. She stood, readying another blast at him, Prime and Torque beside her, three others from Team One backing them up. He fired quickly, Prime leaping toward him, taking all the rounds in the chest, moving forwards as if nothing had happened at all. Scrambling back he tried for the fifty cal and had it half way around when Prime plucked it from his fingers, bent the barrel and tossed it aside.

  Dang. That one was his favorite.

  The golden man looked smug, until Brian rushed him, coming in low and grabbed his legs, picking the large man up briefly and diving so the both of them crashed back into the people behind the golden man. Brian stood, realizing Glory had jumped – no flipped – behind him, readying another of her light shows. Brian skipped back and hit her in the head with a back fist, then swung around to hit her with a left hook to the chin, which took her down.

  Finally.

  He turned to find Prime back on his feet and closing with him and Torque waving his hand, ready to slam Brian into the ground with his own power. Brian dove to the ground first, so that the pressure that hit his back pushed the air out of him and hurt, but didn't slam him hard enough to end things. Prime hadn't expected him to just lay down, so his two-handed bear hug swipe caught only air. Jumping up Brian hit Torque in the groin with his foot. The man's business suit apparently not having a cup. A bit of an oversight. His didn't ether though, so he couldn't blame the guy too much. Reversing without pause, he moved behind Prime and pulled one of the larger mans teammates back, a black-haired guy in purple and dark blue tights who looked incredibly surprised to be suddenly involved, then pushed the man into the target that was Prime.

  Another man, this one fast and strong – compared to Brian – and dressed in green, moved to grab his arm. That was a mistake. The guy was clearly too fast for him to do anything, until he stopped to keep a hold. Brian poked him in the eye, pushed hard and then kicked the man in the chest with a single stomp, knocking the man into the women behind him, they both hit the wall with a thud.

  He ran.

  Rounding the main building, out of options and knowing he'd likely run into the police that had landed in the helicopter to come kill him, he pulled the last handgun and the knife, knowing he probably wouldn't get to use either once Prime caught him. He found the men from the helicopter, two helicopters he saw, both sitting not fifty yards away, black, large things meant to carry troops it looked like, given that about twelve men stood pointing weapons at him.

  In shock he stopped. After half a second he dove to the ground and rolled, not even thinking to fire the gun. He came up running only to have Prime grab him and pin his arms to his sides. It was really inconvenient, so he fired the handgun hitting both Prime and himself in the leg, the bullet just bouncing from the other man and ricocheting. It left a burning sensation, but Brian knew it wasn't bad.

  That felt different.

  Twisting the knife caused a similar effect, the blade sliding off. He grinned at the man, who's smug look faded, realizing Brian didn't think this was finished yet. Leaning forward, mouth open, Brian bit his nose and didn't let go. It hurt enough that the other man howled, and let go of his arms to push him off. Still biting, Brian slammed his right thumb into that tiny hollow behind Prime's left ear over and over again, missing about half the
time. The bigger man reeled and pushed him away finally. He didn't remember dropping the gun, but he still had the knife, which he slid into the same gap he'd been hitting and pushed, about a quarter inch in. A tiny line of blood trickled down the golden mans neck.

  “All right, back away now or I kill him and come for you!” He yelled at the men. Instead of moving back, the men... pointed their weapons up. Really they seemed a little bored, as far as the whole thing went. The man in front stepped forwards and saw the rivulet of blood running along Prime's neck, staining his gold and cream-colored shirt. He whistled, not a signal, just as if saying something was cool.

  “You Proxy then? Captain Mayers. Army. We heard you could use a hand with the police again, thought we'd drop by. While it's impressive that you took down Prime like that, you may want to save killing him for later, because he's on your side. Sent to get you to not open fire yet is all. We didn't have radio contact, a bit of an oversight, so had to send someone physically. I didn't hear Armageddon start, so it looks like that worked... You, ah, didn't kill any of those others did you? That's going to be a mess of paperwork if you did.”

  Not moving, Brian looked around. The rest of first team stood behind him, a military force in front of him and no one he trusted here at all. He looked down and saw that his hostage had recovered from the blows already and could probably disarm him before he could even twitch. Fuck. He pulled the knife out, but kept it in his hand.

  “All right, if that's all true, how about you all, everyone, back away slowly and not make any sudden moves? You people,” he pointed at Team One. “Do not inspire confidence in me right now. And I don't know you other guys at all, the only thing to your credit so far is that you haven't shot me. Yet. The day isn't over though, so how about you all just back the fuck up?” His voice low and rough, he sounded fierce – or at least deranged. It was good enough.

  Calmly Brian shifted into a knife fighting stance, an idea so ludicrous he nearly laughed himself, and really wondered how the people in front of him kept a straight face. Yeah, he was going to take on eighteen people – six of them super-humans and the rest might as well be counted that way – with his little six-inch knife? That would work. Rather than laugh at him, everyone started to move back instead.

  A few feet, then they all stopped.

  “Fuck that. You heard the man, back the fuck off, now. Go!” The voice came from about twenty feet off, Brian looked and felt a wave of relief. Lancaster. One of the two or three people here he kind of trusted. The tall agent repeated himself when everyone tried to stop where he was. “He said back off. Do you really want to be the one to corner the guy? Think about it...”

  After about two minutes, they pulled back, but never let him out of their sight. Lady Glory particularly kept staring at him. Brian stared back for a bit, half expecting her to try and hit him with her power again. He honestly felt a little surprised that they hadn't locked her up yet. Unless this really was a trap, then it made perfect sense. He mentioned it to Lancaster, knowing it sounded more than a little paranoid, and not really caring any more.

  The other man shook his head. “Right now we have other issues. It turns out that the warrant issued had already been overturned when they served it and they knew it, making what they did kidnapping. Of a federal agent no less. There are some people in Washington most unhappy with the police here. This was supposed to go through channels, but scuttlebutt says they planned to kill you? Gray area. It's illegal to escape from police custody, even if they're in the wrong, but no one expects you to let them kill you either.”

  Brian shrugged. “I'm not letting them take me again if I can help it. This whole situation is bull. I'm not convinced this can come to a peaceful resolution now... It would be good if you could keep them off me long enough to rearm. Then if it's possible, could you keep them,” he waved his right hand with the knife in it at the surrounding people, “off of me? I can't fight Team One, Delta Force, and a small army of police by myself at the same time. Maybe we could make up a chart so that I only have to face one group at a time? I'd suggest alphabetical order, but the police seem all pushy and impatient today. Otherwise, of course, these gentlemen could have the first turn.” He meant it as a joke, but sounded so serious Lancaster just nodded.

  “How did you know they were Delta Force?” The agent asked.

  “Who else would they send? Girl scouts? Which, for future reference, would probably work. I mean, I can't hit them or anything, right? They're little kids. They could subdue me with boxes of thin mints and threats of tickling...” A snort escaped him.

  Over to the side the woman from team, one he didn't know, laughed, getting a strange look from everyone around her. She wore a public friendly violet-colored costume, with no scary face mask or anything, since only criminals hid their faces. Glory still glared at him, obviously not as friendly as the violet woman.

  Brian looked around and noticed a gap in their line he hadn't seen before. The building in front of him. He could climb up... and be shot. He still had the knife in his hand, and decided to put it away, not so much to make everyone else comfortable, but because it wouldn't do him any good anyway. Lancaster relaxed then, and waved Mayers over, but not anyone from the base. Robert, Team One's leader, walked over anyway, limping a bit. His business suit looking completely out of place here. Even Lancaster had come dressed for war, looking almost identical to Mayers and really, Brian thought, a lot like he did. Color coordinated even, only Brian's running shoes and the fact that he didn't tuck his pants under stood out in what he wore compared to them. Steal some boots and no one would be able to tell the difference... He couldn't be sure at a glance, but Mayers looked like his feet might be about the right size. Better to go a little big if he had to guess. Big boots would still fit.

  Director Moore came around the corner, Marcia with him, and both walked up to the little group. Torque, Moore, and Marcia all started talking at the same time. After a few seconds Brian understood this wouldn't work too well. He pointed at the Director, being the oldest and in charge of the whole mess, causing them all to go silent.

  “New rule, anyone attacks me again, for any reason, and I'm fighting to the death. Too many people keep coming after me here. It ends now. Explain why you sent Team One to stop me and when you're done you,” he pointed at Robert. “Can explain why no one bothered to say anything like “Wait, we have a plan!'” or something, instead of setting Lady Glory on me... again. Or why after that no one tried explaining anything? For that matter, why the fuck hasn't she been locked up for ambushing me, helping the police in an illegal action? Twice, no wait, three times now... Helping kidnappers has to be a crime.” He looked from one to the other. “Go.”

  The Director told him that Team One had volunteered and that he thought they wouldn't seem as intimidating as Team Two. Things, the older man informed him, were up in the air as far as legality went right now, so they didn't want him to start a battle.

  Giving him a careful glance, as if judging his sanity, Robert went over the events from his viewpoint.

  “We just came to keep you from killing anyone, it looked like you were about to fire so Lady Glory tried to stop you. Prime had to act immediately then, because you'd proven yourself able to defeat her powers before on several occasions. Then you fought before we could respond. Frankly, you did a good enough job that everyone kind of forgot to say anything. We'd gone from coming to chat to stumbling all over each other in less than three seconds. Not a great response from us, moving straight to violence, but it's what we train for. That and press conferences... and photo ops. We don't exactly have a negotiations unit here.”

  It sounded... reasonable to Brian. Things did happen fast and he really had been about to fire. Letting that go, he told them his current plan. Take the fight to them and do his best to end it directly. The group split on that decision, surprising him. He'd expected everyone to just be against him. It wasn't the sanest choice after all, he just didn't know what else to do.

  �
��Look, I can't count on backup here. I've learned that. I can't leave. I won't let them take me... So, that leaves me with going to my death meekly, or going to my death taking some of the bad guys with me. You all know what I have to do. I don't have a real choice.” Seeing the Director getting ready to argue the point he held out a hand to stop him.

  “They flat-out told me they were going to kill me, while beating me. No, I can't prove that in court, and we all know that the word of anyone against the police doesn't play without video any more, much less when it's some “Infected scum” like me. Even if we get some stay of execution today, they're not going to let this go you know. They're monsters, all of them. They'll come as surely as those killers I have to fight each day would if I didn't take them out.”

  The older man argued that he could get them to back off, maybe even face prosecution, which made Brian giggle and snort.

  “Right... Like the police back home? Tell me, are any of them in prison right now for what they did to me? There were huge civil rights abuses there, did any of them even get a real reprimand? Time off without pay? A dirty look from a supervisor? Their name in the paper with a frowny face next to it? Anything?” The look on the Moore's face told Brian that they hadn't. Of course. After that Brian waved his hand at the man, dismissing his obviously false arguments.

  Mayers didn't think he should act... yet, giving the legal option a chance first. “Then, instead of waiting for them to come for you, you go for them, when they aren't massed for war and aren't ready. They'll still get you eventually, but you could take two, three times as many that way if you did it right. Maybe more.”

  It made sense, but Brian could tell that he wouldn't be allowed to act at all. The powers at play here thought he should just die. He made his mind up and started grinning, a look that made Lancaster and Marcia go still. Before anyone could ask what he was thinking, he turned and walked back toward the armory. About half of them followed, but it broke the group up. Delta force followed en-mass for a bit then fell back when Mayers told them to, shaking his head.