The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  As darkness fell she had to remind Brian to keep kicking, and then after a few hours remind him to keep silent, since he kept wanting to answer her out loud. When he forgot and did it, the creatures would moan and howl on the edge of the water, the sound carrying and echoing loudly, sending chills down his spine and fear tightening his bowels whenever it happened. Dharma shuddered a little too each time and shushed him again and again.

  The cold had started to really take hold, he kicked, but his legs didn't have any feeling left near the feet. Even if he got out of the water, he didn't think he'd be able to walk for a while. Despair started to break over him, washing in sobbing waves. Brian held on, knowing this feeling pretty well by now, trying not to let it eat at him. Keep kicking he told himself, over and over again. Stay in control. Don't give up. Never again.

  “That's it, Brian. Keep going! I'm going to go and try to contact Christian – I should have thought of it earlier – duh, I know. Hold on, I'll be right back!” The girl vanished leaving him alone to kick in the darkness, trying to keep his pants filled with air so that he'd float. He felt hungry already, starved, but at least he had water to drink, the lake being fresh and cold, the water tasting clean when he carefully sipped at it.

  After a time, he couldn't tell how long, three sets of howling and moaning when he'd messed up and made noise, Becky returned, sitting on top of the water, wearing a short skirt and skimpy top that exposed her stomach. She had abs, he noticed, and a piercing on the top side of her navel, with a silver barbell in it.

  “Good news!” The girl sounded enthused and happy when she spoke. “Christian has an alert out and the lab guys are isolating your position right now. Everyone's coming to find you. I gave them a full update on,” her hand waved over the water, the only thing he could see, the sky being too cloudy for stars. “This little thing we have going here. I'm supposed to check in every few hours. They're coming for you, so it's just a matter of time now.”

  Then she went back to telling him stories, which became increasingly bawdy as she went on.

  “So there I was, naked, on Carl's bed, masturbating full out, waiting for him to walk in, really hot and raring to go... You know, figuring, hot girl in bed, naked already, really going to town... every guys dream right? He walks in and looks at me for a full minute, really just staring intently, you know? And I'm thinking, yeah, he's totally into me... Then... he critiqued my technique and kicked me out of his room until I learned to do it right!” She laughed out loud then hung her head in shame.

  “I didn't even know he was gay. I was so embarrassed! But he never said anything to anyone and even Chris didn't know until I told her a few days ago. But I carried that for, like, a year at least. I could hardly stand to look him in the eye...” She floated a little into the air and then did a handstand on the surface of the water, hands on the glassy surface, lifting her body easily. Her little short skirt fell around her waist exposing her panties, which were white and very small. On the front of them, the little piece of fabric that kept her current action from being totally indecent, in shining gold letters were the words “You looked!” Brian chuckled weakly, setting off another round of that horrible moaning from the creatures ringing the lake.

  Could they hear, he wondered, little sounds over the racket they made? He splashed, while they howled, to see if they'd react to it in any way. They didn't seem to, hard to tell really, but the round of noise this time didn't seem to be any louder or longer than before so far. Becky came back to her feet on the water silently. Being in his head, she obviously understood what he was thinking.

  “Right, if they can't hear you, you could use the noise to cover your escape. Except that they kind of have us surrounded. You have to hang on until something happens, then capitalize on it. You can do that, easy. So the water's a little chilly? Big fucking deal, right?” She looked into his eyes, standing over him, her makeup still perfect. He wondered what she'd look like without it, or even with regular girl makeup on. If he got out of this, he'd have to ask her and see if she'd be willing to show him.

  “If you get out? If? Dude, you have most of the IPB out looking for you right now! Prime could be here any time to swoop down and pluck you out of the water. Or Soar could do it, have you ever met her? Great gal, except that she likes country music. Team Two. Still, she's out looking for you too, Chris said. I need to go and check with her soon, get an update. Do you think you can keep kicking for a few minutes while I'm off having a chat?” She stood and walked away toward the shore, vanishing about half way there. It was just an effect for him, he knew.

  Having the ability to get updates helped a lot, just knowing that someone out there actually wanted to look, helped him keep going. He felt tired, strength sapped by the cold, but thinking about the others coming for him, that let him keep going. That and the fact that if he died, the person he replaced might too. He felt himself start to sink a little and carefully replaced the air in his float, making sure it was damp, because it wouldn't hold the air in otherwise. Float pants. He'd have never thought of that himself. After a few minutes Brian realized that he'd stopped kicking.

  Starting again he rose a little in the water, legs numb, but at least they didn't ache, no exercise burn for once. That was a good thing. He forced himself to keep moving, keep what heat he could being generated. His brain felt slow, stupid and fuzzy.

  He nearly fell asleep twice, waiting for Becky to come back and give him some good news. Or bad news. Really, dead girl or imaginary friend, whatever she was, having her here made him feel better, less alone. Of course he wasn't really alone in the dark here, all he had to do to remind himself of that would be to make some noise. Just as he was feeling tempted to, the emo-goth girl came back, dressed in her team Brian sweats.

  “Good news! They know where you are. It will take a bit to get here, but they're coming right now. You just have to keep your body temperature up. Christian told me that Jason says that you can survive in this water for like, a long time, a week easy. Most people couldn't, but you're not most people, not any more. The fact that you can't give up makes you special, you know? I told them all that you wouldn't puss out, but everyone already knew that...”

  She kept talking, looking at him with a grin on her face.

  “Karen's freaking out. She's running around ordering everyone to find you like a total spaz. Chris says she really does think you're her boyfriend you know, even if you haven't been sleeping with her. She thinks you're just being gentlemanly. Of course, she also thinks that she's forced you into some massive undying love for her, which would be her fault, so with her compassion... She hides that from you, how she feels, so that you can keep working without worrying about her. It's all part of her first mode. Anyway, she'd be willing to do you even if you weren't hot. Well, I mean, she thinks you're hot, not me, I just think you're cute, in the right light.” She pulled her shirt up a little.

  “Want to see my piercings? I got the belly one on leave.” Then she pulled her shirt up, exposing her breasts, both were also pierced, with silver rings. “These I did myself. I think I did a good job, want a closer look?”

  Brian grunted, then laughed as the beasts set up a racket again. They were freaky. The creatures, not the breasts, which looked, he added for Becky's sake, kind of hot.

  The things on the shore were obviously human, but... not, at the same time. They reminded him of a cross between a werewolf and a zombie, lacking only the talent to moan about brains and a good fur coat. Small blessings he thought, laughing again. That would just be too weird for him to handle, all those voices calling for his brain.

  “I also pierced my clitoral hood, want to see that?” The girl laughed when she said it, being playful it seemed. Brian couldn't understand why. He shook his head. Normally that would have been cool, Dharma was cute and it's not like he even had internet porn or anything on the base, but right now he just couldn't get into it. He started to tell her so, but she put a finger to her lips.

  “Don't get them goi
ng, they creep me the fuck out. I heard you anyway. So, a little cold water and you lose all interest in sex? Pussy. And here I was going to offer a whole show for you, well, lost that chance now! You'll just have to listen to more stories about how cool I was.” She flashed her panties at him again as she sat down.

  She talked for hours, reminding him to keep kicking and calling him a little bitch man when he wanted to stop, the cold water having taken his will. Drinking it, along with the heat from his body. He didn't even feel chilly now, just numb, shivering in the water as he tried to keep kicking. When daylight came the girl left again, going to find out how the search and rescue looked. This time she came back much more quickly, smiling and laughing.

  “I saw the map, it really looks like they have the right place. No worries now, they should be here any time. Bridget said you better get her something nice for her birthday. Mark's making a special cake. You know what Bridget always wanted but never got? Jewelry. It doesn't have to be anything expensive even, though, you know, you can afford to get her something nice. Maybe a tennis bracelet? Something with diamonds? Or, given her coloration, maybe rubies? That would be cool. A few hundred dollars for it, but like I said, you can afford it.”

  Brian wondered about that, they let him have haircuts and soap from the base store, but did he actually get paid, like in real dollars? Really, he hadn't needed anything, not that took money, so he hadn't thought about it. Could he really afford hundreds of dollars in gifts?

  Becky moved her face close to his and reminded him to keep kicking.

  “Yeah, you get a base pay of a thousand a week, as a full operative, which you are, since you go out on missions. Then you get a bonus for each mission you go on, another thousand, unless they've raised it. Plus hazard pay for each week you're in danger, so most of the time for you. I think they have to count that as a constant, since you can leave at any time. You probably have about a hundred thousand sitting in your account right now. It almost makes me wish I were alive so I could have you buy me a new car. You could keep me in style...” She did the splits on the top of the water and stretched athletically for a bit, obviously trying to get his attention.

  The light finally got bright enough to see what surrounded them, Brian counted sixty-three of the creatures, all standing inches away from the lake, ready to pounce if he dared come to the shore. He wondered if they were as tough as he thought before. Maybe only the one had that intense strength and speed. Could it be that the rest were just... drones or... something? A few hours after daybreak he got his answer.

  A helicopter, possibly out looking for him, came into view, he heard it first, but only after Becky pointed it out to him. It flew low, about five hundred feet up. It couldn't land on the water, but if they saw him, they could send for help that could. He felt a thrill of excitement, his limbs so heavy he really couldn't keep them going any more. Maybe he could, if he knew help had come.

  That idea went away fast and hard when four of the creatures jumped into the air and snagged the helicopter from the sky, taking it down easily with a few blows. About half the creatures ran to the crash, the other half staying to watch him.

  “Fuck!” he screamed to no one in particular. The creatures didn't moan this time, they just looked at him, waiting for him to come close enough.

  Dharma walked around him. “Remember to keep kicking, Bri-bri. Don't let your widdle feelings get hurt by this. Just a minor setback. Remember, helicopters going down will get attention to this area and you have some of the toughest bad asses on the planet coming for you! If you punk out on me now, I'll never forgive you.”

  The rest of the day went the same way. She told him the water couldn't really be all that cold, because if it was he'd be dead already. That meant it was survivable and thinking otherwise was just him being a pussy. She liked that word, he realized. That and bitch. He knew that because she kept saying them over and over again.

  The day faded with her yelling at him and the night left the next day to her screaming and calling him names he'd never heard of before. A diseased Nintendo fucker? He didn't have any diseases that he knew of and had never had sex with a Nintendo at all. True, he mused, he had dated that Playstation for a while, but that was private, just between the two of them, right?

  Becky plopped down next to him. “Was that a joke? It was! Hah, I knew you hadn't given up yet!”

  After that he lost track of time. Dharma kept telling him that they were coming to find him and would leave for a bit and then come back. His mind was fuzzy, but he knew on some level that the girl hadn't been in touch with anyone and was lying to him by day three. If they were coming and almost to the lake, there would have been some sign by now, wouldn't there?

  Brian started to hallucinate, more than just a Goth girl that would have looked better dressed more like her sister. Dark things, about cells and not being able to move, creatures tearing him apart and oddly, tennis bracelets, whatever those were. Why would you wear a bracelet while playing an active game like that? But then, didn't people wear skirts while playing? That could be interesting... The guys didn't wear skirts did they? Maybe that's why he'd never followed tennis as a sport.

  “Brian! Kick, Brian! Keep your pants filled with air. Do it now, you fucking punk! Don't you quit!” Sounding far away, the voice called to him through the dark, but he couldn't kick, he didn't have legs any more, or arms. The water felt warm and soft – relaxing – and he was so tired. He just wanted to take a little nap. No harm in that, right?

  “Brian! If you fall asleep now you'll drown!”

  That would be all right. He could sleep forever then, that would be nice, all that uninterrupted sleep. He felt the water hit his lips and start to fill his nose, all he had to do was inhale and it would end and he could get that rest.

  “Brian, no!” The voice sounded louder, which was funny, since his ears were underwater now. “If you die, then Melany dies too! She's only fucking eleven years old, Brian! She can swim, but she can't do what you can, she'll be forced to shore and the monsters will get her. She's only a little girl. They'll tear her apart, Brian!”

  Right. He remembered now. It didn't matter if he felt tired, or hurt, or bled, or even died. Not really.

  He died a long time ago, Brian had. All that remained was Proxy. Whatever the hell that was. He kicked, slowly at first, but enough to get his head above the water. He refilled the pants with air. Clearing his nose and lungs of water he headed for shore. If this wasn't working, he'd fight or he'd run. These things could kill him if that would get the girl free. He knew he'd been on the verge of losing it. Losing control and giving up, like he had before, strapped to that bed on floor eight. He might die now, sure, but he wasn't going to give up, and he wasn't letting the girl down. Not like he had her.

  Barbara Dorn.

  Swimming slowly he approached the shore and got close enough to stand. They didn't come into the water, but the ones in front of him, three of them here, the bank steep and uneven, thick with trampled vegetation, reached for him hungrily. He heard a voice, a woman's voice, screaming his name. He didn't have time to answer. Holding out a single arm, his right, he invited one of the beasts to grab it. The force crushed against him, the armor not stopping the powerful move since the hand didn't close fast enough. He yanked as hard as he could and suddenly threw himself backwards. These things may have super-strength, but they didn't weight much more than he did, in some cases they seemed to weigh less, at least by looks. The one holding on to him flew into the water. A male wearing jeans, his feet elongated so that he stood on his toes.

  Not even feeling like he was there, Brian swam backwards, dragging the gray thing with him. It was taller than he was, by about half a foot, and started struggling fast and hard when its head went underwater, Brian held his breath and waited, letting it pull him down. After a surprisingly short time it had gone still. Dharma stopped yelling at him.

  “Brian! Be careful. You're exhausted and can barely move. That worked... but there's another s
ixty-two of them here and you can't take them on land...”

  He moved in again and again, each time leading a creature into the water, with them flailing at him, desperate to get away, but so unsteady in the damp expanse that they couldn't beat him there. The armor took most of the damage, thank god, or this wouldn't have worked at all. Brian got hit, glancing blows, a few times in the head, and smacked on the hand once by one of the smarter ones that didn't want to go into the water at all, but they seemed to like to aim for body strikes as a rule.

  That saved him. He kept worrying about the ones in the water coming back to life and pulling him under, but they went down and stayed there, leaving him alone. Of course it was gross when he had to drink, knowing all the dead people were in it, but it didn't seem to hurt him, so he did it. The cold seemed to keep them from rotting or something.

  When dark came he'd gotten through twenty of them and felt like he could barely move. Brian stood in the shallow water, marching in place slowly, trying to keep himself warm enough and failing. Still, cold at this level shouldn't kill him. Dharma told him so.

  “You aren't dead yet. I'm an expert on that topic, so trust me. But keep moving. When morning comes you'll need to be warm and ready to fight. Did I ever tell you about Karen's favorite things?” She listed them off, an odd array, most of them from childhood and probably outdated for years. Brian didn't have siblings, so he didn't know how it went, but wondered if you kind of got stuck in the past with them? Remembering what they were like as little children, even after you'd all grown up and changed? That could be confusing. He thought about how much he'd changed over the last months, it would rankle if someone started trying to treat him like he was ten right now, offering him an abacus for his birthday or a calculator as a gag gift for Christmas.