The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  Brian found out what the mysterious problem was later, the next day, when the explosions started.

  Chapter thirteen

  It started at about ten-thirty in the morning, staccato thunderclaps without regular pattern coming from above. Brian sat on his bed and felt the room shake, like an earthquake or nuclear weapons going off. Dust shook out of the ceiling, a fine powder of white, plaster and bits of tile. Things went silent for a second, ten seconds, and then it started again. The last time he'd heard anything like it, Prime had been trying to kill him from about five feet away.

  This was louder.

  Not knowing what was going on he grabbed his knife and the guns from his closet, and headed for the stairs. The elevators would be faster, but it seemed like they might lose power if they were under attack. As if to prove the point, lights began to go on and off in the hallway, the bulbs flickering each time the building shuddered. At the stairwell he ran, as fast as he could, worried about the chest wound, but not enough to stop him from traveling quickly.

  Moving carefully, Brian watched for attack, which meant covering each exit door with the pistol in his right hand as he passed it. Brian nearly shot Soar and Dave as they burst out of the one on fifth floor. He pulled the weapon up and out, so that if it went off it wouldn't hit more than dirt and rock backed wall. Neither of them knew what was going on either, so they all ran, Soar falling behind almost instantly, her short legs and long arms slowing her on the stairs. Her tan skin turned a red color as she moved, Brian saw. Dave nearly matched him in speed, but wasn't being as careful at the doors as he should be. Possibly counting on his powers to protect him, whatever those were. For all Brian knew the guy was invulnerable or immortal or something. A power like that would be so cool, Brian thought as he ran, scanning the world around him intently.

  On the third floor a half dozen agents joined them, surrounding the Director, who had on a bullet proof vest and a helmet. Both black and new looking. Strange, being over his suit jacket, a bit of tie sticking awkwardly out the top. Lancaster stood just in front and to the right of the older man as they moved.

  Brian looked at them and realized that his armor was better than theirs, which looked like standard police issue. Going up the stairs a few steps, he half turned, keeping his focus on the stairs above them. Without turning around he called out instructions.

  “Right. I'll lead, agents around the Director. Soar, if you and Dave would guard the rear? I don't know what's going on... anyone?” He said this while running, having to slow down so that the whole group could keep up, leading them up, only one flight of stairs in front of them, so he could call out if need be, getting them to stop, or even run away while he covered them. The whole group was too close together, but short of sending one person per minute out, that was pretty much what had to happen. If someone lobed a bomb down the stairs, they were all dead this way, but so far so good.

  Fast trumped careful sometimes.

  Of course, if you got a choice, doing both kind of ruled. Brian focused on the doors as he passed them, willing them to open up on him, if there was a problem, instead of the others.

  When he got to the first floor he heard the fighting on the other side clearly. People screamed and fought in a way he'd never heard before. Energy blasts punched holes in walls, at least one fire arm went off, and the explosions... Being closer he realized they were the sounds of people hitting each other, not bombs going off at all.

  He kept going. Anything that hit that hard was too much for Brian to handle, he and the others needed to get out if they could. On the lobby level the front half of the structure had been collapsed somehow. He could see daylight through the structure, but doubted he could move any of it. Maybe climb through eventually, but not while getting the Director out that way too. The guy was a bit bulky and slow.

  Looking at the man, made Brian shake his head. Four odd months ago he probably had thirty pounds on the guy and here he was thinking of the Director as bulky? A little rich.

  Dave saw the situation and simply asked everyone to step back, his mechanical sounding voice pleased. Then without hesitating at all the blue man walked through the rubble, clearing it out of the way. It tried to fall on him, but seemed to repel as he moved, never touching him, no matter how heavy the debris was. Useful talent, especially given the situation. He made a corridor that everyone else could just walk through. The ceiling was gone, so at least there was nothing left to drop on them. When they cleared the building an agent he'd never met suggested they get away from the building as fast as possible. The man sounded calm, but everyone else ran on hearing it, so Brian did too, calling for Soar and Dave to do the same. Felicia couldn't move on the ground very fast maybe, but took to the air, moving past everyone else in less than a second, even while they all kept running.

  Just as they got about a hundred meters away, the front of the building exploded outward, taking part of the ground with it. Prime flew out of the mess of debris, taking to the air instantly. Half a dozen others came out too, right behind him. Lauren was in the lead, moving with speed that almost baffled the mind, faster than Brian had ever seen from her, her body turning into a black and brown smear of color. She screamed inarticulately as she followed the path Prime set, throwing things at him.

  The rest of Team Two seemed to be following her, except Soar and Dave, who were staying by the Director. Team one followed shortly after, holding a beaten and bruised looking Charlot Chambers as they moved. At first Brian wondered if Prime had done it to her, the left half of her face beaten into a swollen and bloody mess, clothing torn from fighting and covered in blood. Then he saw how she tried to struggle out of the grasp of the men that held her, demanding they let her go.

  So probably not another Scott issue?

  Watching carefully Brian waited, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. Prime was downed by a slab of steel reinforced concrete thrown by Lauren, who expertly jumped back at some signal Brian missed, so that Charles and several others could strike at Scott with energy beams of one kind or another. Stones suddenly rained down, coming out of nowhere it seemed, some as big as Brian's head, most hitting Prime, but some bouncing off the ground and striking others standing too close. Some power he hadn't even heard about before? The rocks weren't concrete bits and just appeared above them as far as he could tell. They looked well rounded, like river stone, but dry.

  Charlot screamed, inarticulate in her rage and was suddenly enveloped in a white light, which threw everything, not just the people holding her but even the ground at her feet, away with great force. It left her on a small pedestal about six inches high, in the middle of a crater, about six foot across. The men stirred – still on the ground – showing they were alive, one of them, Argos, getting up almost as if nothing had happened. The other guy moaned for a bit, injured badly enough that he didn't want to rise, it seemed to Brian. Charlot aimed her hands at the people attacking her husband and opened fire. This went on for almost a minute until Lancaster took aim at Charlot's head with his side arm.

  Suddenly a small blur moved in front of the large man, twisting the gun away and knocking Lancaster to the ground with a single blow. The weapon went flying away, a nice, very long arc pattern to it. Brian's eyes finally made out what was there. Bridget. Red hair a mess, as short as it was, the dress she'd been wearing, her nice green one that made her look about twenty, no more than tatters, feet bare. She'd been crying hard enough her eyes were red and at least one person had hit her at some point, the fist imprint clear on her cheek. The fist had been small, so it wasn't Prime. He liked to backhand people anyway, which was probably linked to his huge ego. That left a totally different kind of mark.

  Tobin started singing to Charlot causing her to fall to her knees, disoriented, but unhurt. At the same moment the Director held a hand out to Bridget and called her name, the girl spun on him angrily.

  “Shut up! If you lie about me again, I'll kill you!” She lashed out at the agents around him, not hitting any of t
hem, which had to have been on purpose, Brian realized. The girl may be small, but she knew how to fight, and even armed, none of the agents would have stood a chance against her if she'd wanted to hurt them. So she wasn't being driven to kill yet by whatever this situation might be. That was something at least.

  Slowly Brian walked over to her as she swung at the men and held his arms out for a hug. With most people it would have triggered either the out of control person avoiding him, thinking it a trap, or lashing out at him in anger. Bridget wasn't most people. She hit his chest with hers arms wrapping tightly around his neck, and started talking so fast Brian could only just make out what she tried to say.

  “They're lying about us! Saying that daddy and I... and mom, that we did things... Gross stuff! I didn't and no one touched me or anything. Ever! We were just starting to get along like a real family and then everyone does this... Why do they all hate me? Why are they lying about me? About us? Why?”

  It took Brian a minute to get the whole story and one of the agents to fill in the blanks, but he finally got it. People had been watching Bridget, because she'd been acting funny, similar to when she'd hidden having sex with people in the past. They got footage of her having sex with Prime, while Charlot stood by, watching. Everyone had gone earlier to confront them with it, but Prime denied it, so did Charlot, and a fight broke out. They'd left Brian out of it fearing he'd hurt someone. The idea made Brian want to laugh for about half a second as he looked at the mess behind him.

  “All right. Bridget, please... stay here. I'll be back soon. I hope.” Brian turned and walked over to where the fight was taking place, where everyone with the ability to do it pounded on Prime as hard as they could, knocking him into the ground over and over again. As Brian got closer debris started hitting him in the face and head, he squinted, but kept walking. When Brian got to Prime, he knelt, the man panting in rage and pain where he struggled to stand, his legs not able to hold him up any more, burns and blood all over them. When Lauren moved in to kick the golden man, Brian shifted into her path.

  “Move Brian, or so help me I'll-” The armored form spoke, her voice harsh, filled with rage and tears of her own.

  Shaking his head Brian held up his right hand. “Wait!” He yelled loudly. “I can't prove it at the moment, but there's a chance that this was set up by someone else, no matter what the evidence is saying. The most important thing right now is that all the accused parties are claiming innocence. We owe them at least enough concern to see if this is real or something planted to, well, most likely to get this to happen. So, here's what we're going to do. Prime is now in my custody, Charlot too. Mark?” He turned to look at the man who had appeared beside him instantly.

  “If you would, could you and...” Looking around he saw an unfamiliar shape in the sky, circling over head. “Soar, guard Bridget please? No matter what else is going on she's not a prisoner, but she may need protection...”

  Or babysitting, which he hoped they understood. Mark nodded and moved instantly to the small girl, seeming to teleport to her side, waving to try and catch the attention of the flying form above them.

  No one attacked at least, which was a good sign, considering how pissed most of them still looked. Keeping his body between Prime and Team Two he asked them to back away. He added please to it, hoping no one would feel too unreasonable, since there were some real powerhouses in the mix and Brian doubted he could stop them if they decided to attack, leaving only the threat of his blood on their hands as a deterrent. There were a lot of them and he only had so much blood.

  “Now, raise your hand if you're calm enough to do something productive?” He raised his hand, and so did Dave, and a woman that looked normal, if a little plain, a bit square and boxy, her face flat and expressionless. Kel, he'd heard her called. They'd met briefly at Bridget's party.

  “Good, Dave, Kel, you're in charge of search and rescue. We need to check the building for survivors and injured. Requisition anyone you need. If they can't calm down enough to work... Send them to me.” Brian almost winced, that last bit had sounded like a threat, rather than the gentle suggestion it was meant to be.

  Dharma appeared suddenly, making him afraid that he was about to go somewhere else, but she pointed behind them, where a man the same color as the background walked quickly toward the prone man at Brian's feet, holding something that looked like a camouflaged club.

  “Daniel, he's tough, but not normally aggressive. Not that I blame him right now. How can you bear to back Prime? If I had substance I'd totally be kicking his ass too. I mean, his own daughter?”

  Not answering, Brian turned and pointed at the man.

  “Daniel, I need you to be in control of yourself for now. We can test for guilt here, we have people that can do that, let's not give in to anger right now only to find out it was the wrong move. Plenty of time for that later, right?”

  The man stopped, breathing hard, like a bull ready to charge. He threw the club down, letting it turn into the pipe it was and raised his hands, backing away. “Fine, for now,” he told Brian, normal color returning to him as he backed off. “But if I find out they did that to Bridget...”

  Prime aimed one of his energy blasts at the man, which Brian stepped in front of, hoping it wouldn't kill him. His armor didn't stop energy blasts at all, just kinetic force. It was a moot point, because Scott realized what had happened and the nimbus or darkness around the man's fist died.

  “I'll kill them all. I'll prove I'm innocent of this, then one by one... They. Will. Die.” He muttered softly. Brian could hear him, but he doubted anyone else could.

  “Yeah, well, hold that for now, all right? We need to get some people here as soon as possible to help out, and we have to secure the people in the building at the same time. It's kind of like bombs, plural, went off in there. I don't see a lot of people that should be here by now...”

  Waving he signaled to the Director, who stayed where he was but sent Lancaster over to talk to him.

  “Brian.” The agent looked at him, sunglasses covering his eyes, a red welt on his face where Bridget had slapped him earlier. The sunglasses were mirror shades, the kind that looked dorky on most people, but on a man with a gun in his hand looked a little intimidating. It was the whole not being able to see the eyes thing. Freaky.

  “I've got Dave and Kel from Team Two heading search and rescue. That has to be first, then I want... if they're able to function after this, Christian from my team and... the older black man that can tell if people are lying or not? I can't remember his name right now. Also, if you can spare some agents to come stand over here and look intimidating? I mean, when things are safe enough for the Director. I don't expect any more trouble, for now, but I'm really worried about the people inside...”

  Not saying anything, Lancaster turned and ambled over to Moore who looked over at Brian and nodded, whatever that meant. Two of the black suited agents walked over, looking around efficiently for trouble and asked what the plan was.

  “Would you watch Prime for me while I get Charlot and bring her over. Right now, if anyone tries anything violent, um, stand in the way and try not to shoot them? I'll be back as soon as I can. Thanks... this is a big help.”

  Taking a deep breath, Brian walked over to where Tobin sang softly to the press agent, his bald, slightly over-sized, head bobbing back and forth gently as he hunched down next to her. Charlot lay on the ground, slack jawed and drugged looking, shifting slightly now and then when the singing man altered his rhythm just slightly or changed songs completely. Right now he sang an old show tune, something upbeat from Oklahoma, which Brian recognized, but didn't know all the words to. Brian marveled a little at how good he was again. If people were a bit less prejudiced, Tobin would have been famous already, just for his voice.

  Maybe even with the bigotry. He was that good.

  “Tobin,” Brian spoke softly, trying not to startle the man. “I'd like to move Charlot over by Scott, if that's all right with you? Then we need to help
save people if they're trapped inside. I think the fighting is done, for now at least.”

  Tobin finished the song, which made it easier on the person being effected than if he just stopped, as Brian had learned the hard way the third time they'd spared, when he'd gotten a choke hold on Goblin and suddenly cut his air off enough to prevent singing. It felt a bit like getting an electric shock, stronger than a taser by a good bit. Charlot came out of it over about two minutes time, and promptly started trying to fight, so Brian hugged her and told her the plan, to have everything checked out by Christian and the truth guy.

  “You mean Martin Joabs? If only they would have thought about that first instead of ambushing us like they did. How did they think we'd react to such... I don't even have words to describe it! Why? Who'd do this to us? I mean, we aren't perfect, but to accuse of this... Who gains from it?”

  Taking her arm he walked her slowly over to where her husband sat on the ground, carefully not moving, but still muttering under his breath. This, Brian knew, would be a problem, even if the couple could be cleared. Prime really meant it when he said he planned to hunt them all down one at a time and kill them. There was almost no other way for him to save face and dignity here, not to his mind at least.

  Normally Charlot was the person that talked him down when things like this happened, but right now her advice would probably be about how to best sneak up on them or get them alone to make the executions easier. They wanted to see their daughter and make certain she wasn't hurt, but Brian didn't see that as possible until they were cleared of the accusations.

  “I'm not trying to be mean, but that could set everyone off again and really, I can only pull out the “You'll have to beat me to death to do it” card so many times before someone realizes that one of them could just hold me out of the way without sweating, you know?”