The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  The elevator ride took about two or three minutes, most of that being the time it took to get on and wait for the doors to close. The elevators here were about as fast as most regular people could handle without discomfort, making the trips down feel a little like an amusement park ride to Brian. Bridget had told him that if you jumped right at the beginning you could float for a while until it started to stop. He'd never tried it, but it sounded cool. Possibly lethal too, if you weren't an eighty pound super-girl.

  Brian had been to the first level a few times, visiting with Karen, but never eaten there. Everyone said the food was good, but he'd never had a reason to go before. Strictly speaking they were all supposed to eat in their own team's dining facility, but since they could claim Jeremy as a VIP and even say it with a straight face, since he literally was about as big as they come short of the President, today at least, having brought presents, they should be able to get in.

  The hostess seated them instantly, not even waiting for an explanation.

  The woman was older, efficient and dressed better than anyone in their group by far, a long black evening dress that hugged her body and red high heels, with fishnet stockings that peeked through just a little bit on her left leg as she walked, the slit in the dress letting it show. The stockings should have looked out of place, but the whole thing had the feel of a nineteen twenties or thirties fine restaurant. The interior had wood and leather, real paintings on the walls, and chairs that were at least as comfortable as the one in Brian's room, which he'd spent more than one night dozing in since he'd gotten to the facility.

  The seating was open enough that he could see who else was there as they came in, but he tried not to draw attention by looking around overly. They made light conversation while they had drinks, Jeremy asking most of the questions, and Marcia answering them.

  “This is actually the Team One dining facility. They get most of the perks – the best rooms, best food and so on. The idea is that if anyone sneaks in to see them, news people or what have you, they'll always look well cared for. Considering half of them could probably leave and get jobs in the movies or television anyway, it helps to keep them happy too.” Beatdown raised her eyebrows at the scientist who looked pretty interested in what she was saying. Or possibly just in her, it was hard to tell. “The reality is a little darker. People donate things to Team One hoping they'll get seen in interviews and what not. The other teams are kept away from the cameras by and large – with a few exceptions, like the team leaders, Level and Brian. But Level doesn't do too well with reporters. She gets tongue tied. Popular with kids though.”

  As she spoke Prime noticed them and walked over, his date, an attractive but tiny woman, following behind him. When they got to the table Brian did a double take.

  “Bridget! You look great. Special occasion?”

  Prime answered for her, even as she clearly fought to keep from blurting the answer out.

  “It's her birthday. Fifteen today.” He sounded proud, as if he hadn't expected her to live that long. Then again, maybe he hadn't? When you have a kid that had to fight sticking their finger in the light socket each time they passed it, no matter how many times they got shocked, not expecting much from them or getting too close could make sense. Luckily she was freaking tough.

  Brian stood up and hugged the girl.

  “Hey! Happy Birthday! Well, I don't have a present for you yet... I get some time off in a few days, we'll get together and do something to celebrate then, a party maybe, if you want?”

  Bridget started to squeal and clap her hands, but fought that impulse down quickly and nodded in a very adult manner. She told him very seriously that she'd clear a space on her calendar for it. Then she jumped into his arms and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Of all the guys I don't get to sleep with you're my favorite, Brian.”

  Prime laughed and winked at the table knowingly. Then asked who their guest was.

  “Right, sorry, Scott. This is Doctor Jeremy Messerschmidt, currently at Harvard. Material sciences among other things. An old friend of mine who's trying to help with my current endeavor, staying alive and all that.” Holding a hand out toward Prime he continued. “Jer, this is Scott Chambers and the lovely young lady beside him is his daughter, Bridget Chambers.”

  They all shook hands and Bridget started to ask all sorts of questions about where Jeremy and Brian had met, how long they'd known each other, and if he had any funny or embarrassing stories about him to share. Suddenly, an obvious act of self-discipline, she stopped, took a deep breath and suggested that they go to her dad. On impulse she wrote something down on a piece of paper and slid it over to Jeremy, then left dragging a laughing Scott by the hand.

  Jason watched the scene with pride and amazement.

  “That's... She has to fight for each scrap of control, that she pulled back like that is... incredible. Like a person not pulling their hand out of a fire through force of will. I think I blinked somewhere in there and didn't notice her growing up. So, what's on the paper?” He looked at Jeremy who laughed and showed him. Jason, who sat across the table, slid the napkin across the smooth wood toward the others so that everyone could see. It had a number, presumably for Bridget, and asked him to call with the dirt later. Jason gave the paper back, grinning.

  After dinner – which was excellent – and before dessert, Karen saw them and came over for her own introduction. She stood with her arm over Brian's shoulder, her small left breast pushing firmly against him, which, he realized, required her to bend over to make happen. Marcia looked at the scene with humor and Jeremy looked amazed.

  “So, are you two...” he asked, a slightly impressed look on his face.

  Karen looked the scientist right in the eye... and nodded, causing everyone to look at her. “Oh, yes, for over a month now. Don't tell everyone though. It's still new and everything.” She leaned in and kissed Brian on the cheek then moved off, telling them she had a magazine interview in half an hour.

  Jeremy looked impressed.

  “Brian... she's hot. now does she have a sister that thinks scientists are cute?” He chuckled shaking his head slightly as if to negate what he'd just said. Self-depreciating humor.

  Becky popped in to view, for Brian at least, wearing a school girl uniform, the type only found in movies, with a plaid skirt far too short for reality and a white blouse with a dark blue vest over it. Looking at the slightly older man, only three years older than himself, Brian realized, she made a considering face, waggled her hand in the air, and checked him out carefully.

  “Well, I wouldn't toss him out of bed. I'm not going to any sci-fi conventions though. A hot ex-superhero like me would just get mobbed. Plus the whole alluring ghost thing now... You know how those guys are.”

  Fighting to keep his face straight, Brian tried to change the subject before Jeremy figured out that Karen had been kidding. Even if it wasn't true, he had so little to impress someone like Jeremy with that he didn't want to ruin it. Jason helped out, asking if Jeremy wanted to see anything else while he was in the facility.

  Jeremy blushed but nodded. “Yeah, um, the guys at the lab told me to be on the lookout for any famous people here, superheroes and all that. I told them I didn't know enough about the topic to even look, but that I'd try and remember to check things out if I got a chance. Are there any around here, do you think?”

  Brian nodded.

  “Be casual, but the guy sitting over there,” Brian made a movement with his head to indicate direction, “the one with the mustache and business suit that looks like James Bond? He's the Team One leader, Torque. Really cool guy. Saved my life once.”

  They all looked around for a bit, Jason pointing casually behind them.

  “Ooooh, yeah that's a good one if you've got fan boys in your crew. Behind us two tables, sitting with two gentleman, wearing the red dress? Pixie. Also Team One.”

  They played celebrity spotter for about half an hour then Jeremy told them he had to catch his flight back
home early the next morning, so needed to get to his airport hotel. They shook hands firmly.

  “Jer, thank everyone back at your lab for me will you? This gear... It's nothing short of amazing. If I can learn to use it right, it could help a lot of people eventually. Also, thanks for keeping my oboe. It's a good reminder that not everything from back then was numbers and study without end.”

  They walked him out to his rental car, a red sedan, and watched as he drove away.

  Marcia put an arm around Brian as his friend left and pulled him to her gently.

  “You and Karen are dating? The papers are going to love that... The tabloids that is. That's OK, it will help dissuade those gay rumors – Karen's, not yours. No one looks at you and thinks gay. Still... keep us in the loop on things like that. If you two break up it's going to be awkward. We can handle it, but... Yeah. So be careful.”

  Brian laughed.

  “She just said that to make me look good in front of Jer. Which worked too. Remember, the whole time I was in college I couldn't even get a date. Too young for all the girls I knew, so lots of “You're like my little brother” speeches. This way Jeremy won't think I'm a total loser. Nice of her really.”

  They went in and all started to ride down to floor nine, since Marcia wanted to play with the new knife and demanded that Brian break the oboe out too, claiming musicians to be hot with a sultry chuckle. Brian told her she only thought that because she'd never seen an oboe being played, but promised he'd give it a shot. He used to be good at it after all.

  At floor four Becky appeared in the car with them and started yelling at him to get off now. Panic filled the air around them as she did it, an actual feeling in the air.

  He hit the button and got out on five, Lauren looking at him strangely as he dove out of the elevator. Dharma paced with him, wearing sweats that said “Team Brian” on the front. She pointed toward Lauren and screamed at him.

  “Run! Now! No time. Don't let them touch you! Don't stop running!”

  He ran directly at the giant woman, who jumped out of the way smoothly.

  Then he felt the tingling start.

  Chapter ten

  Running didn't make a difference. Not at first. Brian ran full out and felt himself struck from behind hard, knocked forward, almost instantly. He rolled and found himself on soft mud, which gave under him. Tightening the move, Brian managed to protect his head and not face plant thanks to the training Carl had him doing. He struggled to his feet and felt what came for him rather than saw it. Them. Six of them at least, cold, dead-looking things, but fast.

  Strong too, he realized, running as hard as he could along the bank of the lake, mud dragging at his feet, a brown mud, so not a lot of clay, at least in those spots. He almost laughed, not knowing where that observation had even come from. It probably wouldn't matter long, because the things that chased him were almost on him and new armor or not Brian knew he wouldn't last too long in a fight with them.

  The one that caught up to him first probably saved his life. Instead of aiming a blow for his unprotected head, it came at the center of his back, points of pain where the talon like fingernails struck, the force spreading evenly over his body. Being shot by Jason hadn't hurt. This did. He felt himself being flung forward, at least eighty feet, probably more. The armor saved him from the blow, locking him in place as he flew at first.

  Brian still blacked out from the force of it.

  The water felt cold, shockingly so, as he hit, waking him back up. He started to sink, causing panic for a few seconds thinking the new armor would drag him down. After a bit he kicked a little and went back to the surface, realizing that he only sank because his body fat was a lot lower now than the last time he went swimming two or three years before. At least he knew how to swim, he thought, working to keep his head above water.

  Brian turned his attention to the attackers, trying to figure out what he could about them. They were normal-human size and wore varied clothing. They looked alike in a way, long jaws, gray skin, and black fingernails. All of them had a lanky, long-armed body structure that reminded him a little of Tobin from the base – without the smiling and pretty songs. They stood on the bank, not coming in after him. So either they couldn't swim, or they knew something about the water that he didn't. Treading in place, Brian hoped they just didn't like water, because anything that could scare these things would just kill him.

  They were similar to one another, but like family members, not clones. All had different hair lengths and some were obviously female. At least one had lost her top somehow and her breasts drooped as if the fat had been sucked out, but she'd definitely been a girl before she became this... whatever it was. All of them just stood, watching him, not moving.

  He kept treading water, upright, trying to get a feeling for what he could do. The lake was big but empty, the water deeper than he could stand in, which he found out by standing up and letting himself sink for a bit. The water covered his head easily. He thought he'd gotten at least nine feet down before he'd had to come back up, the pressure hurting his ears. Coming to the surface, Brian noticed that they still hadn't moved. That, he thought, could help him. Maybe he could just wait until dark, swim quietly to the other side and run away from there, while they stood waiting? He'd have to be nearly silent about it, but that could work.

  He searched the far side of the lake, checking it out carefully as he bobbed gently in the water. It looked like that plan could really work, there was even a patch of bare bank where he could go to shore without encountering brush. Good, all he had to do now would be keep moving enough so that he didn't succumb to hypothermia.

  The water wasn't that cold, not really. No worse at least than what kids would gladly go swimming in on a warm summer day in a lot of places. Still, if he had to stay in it for hours, it would eventually sap the heat away from his body and start to weaken him, making Brian slow and fuzzy mentally. So he needed to keep moving hard enough to stop that from happening, using exertion to keep himself warm.

  Well, he figured, running wasn't swimming, but at least he knew his heart wouldn't give out from just a few hours of work anymore. The sky already seemed to be getting dark. Looking up he saw clouds, which could be throwing things off. He didn't know where he was in the world, but the people looked like they wore North American style clothes. Blue jeans and flannel on some, Spandex pants on the woman that had lost her top. That meant he was either in the same time zone or had moved over one, western Canada or the Pacific Northwest then. Maybe. Not places he'd hung out before, but the water felt cool, his fingers going a little numb already, stiff, arms heavy, so someplace north made sense. The trees were green and conifers, which meant his initial guess was probably right enough. Unless he was in the Ukraine or something.

  Movement on the water caught his eye, a bit of blue floated on the surface of the water next to him. He turned toward it, ready to fight, knowing that one of these creatures could just drown him without trying if it had come for him. Anything that could hit him over eighty feet like that had to be strong. Marcia had kicked him twenty feet earlier, and he was almost positive she hadn't held back. Fucking hell. Still, Brian reminded himself, he'd come to protect someone, and whoever that was would get everything he could bring, before he died.

  Dharma sat on top of the water, not making a ripple in it, wavelets and ripples passing under her. Staring around she held up a finger to her mouth for him to see, telling him not to talk and probably not to make too much noise at all. He held his hands under the water a little deeper, so that he wouldn't splash as he moved.

  “Bri, look around, carefully. On the bank...”

  Turning slowly in place he saw them, not just the six that still stood watching him, but dozens of them, all around the lake. All standing and waiting for him to come out. Fuck, Brian felt a surge of panic but kept his mouth shut, hoping they wouldn't notice him. Then he realized they already did, all of them staring at him as intently as the first six.

  “You'l
l have to hang out here, Brian. No big, you can tread water and turn your pants into a flotation device. You'll lose your shoes, but I don't think you're going to outrun these guys anyway. Go ahead and kick them off now. Be quiet about it. We don't know what might set these things off...” The dead girl kept looking around, waiting for him to react. He followed her instructions, kicking his shoes off and letting them sink in the water a bit. He hoped they'd stay near the surface so he didn't lose them all together.

  He could swim, but didn't have a clue what she meant by turning his pants into a flotation device. Were they magic or something? A built in device no one had ever told him about maybe? Dharma laughed and explained it to him. He needed to take them off, tie the ends together in a knot, put the legs over his head, then trap air in the waist, filling the whole thing up. They had to be kept damp, but they'd hold air that way for a while.

  It took her changing her clothes and showing him, but he finally got the idea and did it himself well enough to keep his head above water without too much work. He still had to kick, pretty hard, because to do less meant his body temperature would drop, but if he missed a beat for a few seconds he might not drop below the water instantly.

  Becky kept talking to him, telling him stories from her life, about the guys she'd liked mainly.

  “For a long time I kind of had a crush on Prime, I mean I was eighteen, so what girl doesn't? I even got him into bed a couple times before he got bored with me. Now I understand that, you know, his first mode kind of means he feels entitled to sleep with anyone he wants and not be too gentle with people's feelings when he gets bored, but at the time it just crushed me. He'd just finished, not caring if I came or not and didn't even wait for me to get my clothes on before telling me he was done with me. Not “Hey, we should see other people” or “This isn't working out” he actually just said “I'm done with you now, go away.” Cold, right? I cried myself to sleep for weeks.”