The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  The man moved into the space, owning it practically, just by being there. He didn't mince or pretend that he wasn't looking for Bridget in the most likely places, those being the bed, which was still unmade, and the bathroom, probably taking a shower to get rid of the scent of all that sex that Tobin hadn't had with her.

  Prime shrugged.

  "Well, this probably won't be the last time I have to check here. We can't really help it, being heartthrobs like we are. It isn't her fault that you're so good-looking, and famous, is it?" He smiled as if he were actually being serious and patted Tobin on the back. "Now, about those singing lessons..."

  That at least he had an answer for.

  "Already set up. After dinner. Here, I think, for today?"

  "Oh? That sounds good. I can't wait. It never hurts to find another area in which to shine, when you can. Speaking of which, Charlot mentioned that she'd like to set up some practice time in the afternoons, for political discussions and media events. You know, sensitive topics and that sort of thing? What not to talk about, for the most part."

  "Okay. I... guess." The woman seemed to be trying to be a good mother, after a fashion, he thought, which was about ten times more than he expected from her. It was incredible that Prime was even talking to him, being so popular and famous.

  It left him feeling uneasy.

  The man shook his hand and then left, which let him get into his workout clothes, which were identical to the sweats he slept in and still had a shirt that said Team Two on the front, and slowly headed to the dining room. The nice one, since it was where he was supposed to get food now. He couldn't go in, he didn't think, since they were supposed to look nice for the meals and he just didn't. He hovered around the door for a bit, until the man that was there saw him, and walked over, smiling.

  "Good morning. Come to get a bite to eat?" he sounded relaxed and happy about it, instead of tense like the woman from the day before.

  "Yay. I mean, yes. I'm new to Team One, and know that I can't come in dressed like this, but I don't need a lot in the morning. Is it possible to get a piece of fruit or a yogurt cup?" Almost anything would do. Life had shown him a thousand times that people like him couldn't afford to be picky. "I'm headed to the gym." It was more of an explanation than needed, but the man didn't seem upset about it at all.

  "Very good. I can do all of that. Is this going to be every day? I can have an order ready for you, to go, if you wish? We have a very good chef on duty, and he almost never gets to do anything special. Not working the late shift as he does."

  Tobin nodded, but felt heat rising to his face, which would mean he was turning a brilliant green. "That would be good. I don't need much. Really, some fruit or somtin... Something, would be good."

  That got the man to leave, coming back with a small basket of things, an actual wicker one with an open top, about three minutes later. It had cold fruit and three different types of high end yogurt in it. Plus a real spoon, and two bottles of juice.

  "How about some finger sized foods for tomorrow? At this time?"

  He nodded at the man, knowing that it was way too much food for just him, but also getting that someone at the gym would be willing to share. After all, the dining facility for Team Two didn't open until later and he wasn't sure if Brian ever got anything early in the day at all. He'd gone from kind of heavy and normal looking to almost wire-like over the last year. For a normal person anyway.

  That meant, that after a bit, when he showed up, Tobin had to wave the man over. He'd already had a fresh and ripe pear, and washed in the water fountain, so had almost everything else left.

  "Food. The restaurant gave me too much, so the rest is for you." It came out wrong, sounding like he was telling the man to eat, but got a grin from him anyway.

  "Right. I know that I'm supposed to be eating more. That's just so alien to me now. I spent so long losing the weight that I can't stand the idea of gaining anything back, but I need to put on a little muscle. Thanks. I keep forgetting." He didn't wait, just grabbing the blueberry yogurt and starting in on it, using the spoon that had been provided. He didn't even look to see if Tobin had used it first. That was probably a sign that Proxy, at least, didn't look down on him for being ugly or funny looking.

  After he finished the first half, eating quickly, the hard looking Asian man smiled and held up the spoon.

  "So, Team One. About freaking time. I've been lobbying for them to put Lauren on for a while, but Charlot thinks she's too scary for most people. Kids love her though. You're actually a good choice too, but we need another person from Team Two to round things out. That or Penny. She's pretty busy right now I hear?"

  Tobin grinned, getting the idea that Brian had in mind, and nodded.

  "Right, we need Felicia. That or Dave. They're both really nice and strange looking at the same time." Dave was all blue and talked like his voice had been run through a digitizing synthesizer. Felicia was, for all intents and purposes a sentient pterodactyl. What wasn't to love?

  Brian stopped and looked at him, his face going strange for a bit, but after looking away and clearly thinking for a while, he nodded.

  "Soar, I think. You have to go first for a while and take the hard knocks that are coming. The backlash from this. Don't back down. When they tell you to quit, don't. When they call you names and spit on you, hold to your pride and don't let them break you down. It won't be easy, but if you want to make a real difference, if you want anyone to ever take the Infected seriously, it has to be you standing in the front, being hit by the thrown bottles and trash." He sounded so certain that it was eerie.

  Tobin sighed.

  "Yah. I know. They'll probably kill me for doing all this. Trying to say that I'm worth something." That didn't get the denial that he expected, or platitudes either, just a hard look.

  "So, we practice running. If they want to kill us, they can darn well do the work of catching us first. Come on."

  That was a bit different, since Brian didn't let up on him and when they practiced sprints got left far behind, every time, but he caught up when they went slow and pushed Tobin so hard that he nearly puked, by ten, when he mercifully got to leave for the day. Brian had to keep going, but it was only lifting weights for an hour.

  Then it was down to fifteen, where Carl had him stand in a box about the size of his old room, ten by ten and fired tennis balls at him with a machine that did it automatically. His job, for half an hour, was to try to dodge them as the speed increased, and Carl got meaner, cheating to make it harder all the time.

  At first it was nearly a relief to get to go and stand on the little post that Hobbs would have ready, but they weren't doing that today, it seemed. Instead the red bearded and slightly strangely dressed man, in his regular patched clothing, had two tiny grills with charcoal ready to go, the metal part on the top taken off. Bridget was there, and so was Denis, but he was already doing something, standing in a bent leg stance with his eyes closed, clearly trying to keep the pain away.

  Hobbs smiled, his eyes twinkling merrily.

  "Ah! It is time again then, for a challenge. Lady Bridget's goal is to place her hand on the coals, and not pull away as she is burned for as long as possible. Master Tobin shall do the same, but focus on instantly returning his hand to the fire, as soon as he has healed." It sounded like it would hurt, but he was told how to keep his mind still while doing it. It might help, Hobbs allowed. "Not much. You are too new to holding such clear thoughts for it to aid you overly. The lesson is in returning your hand to the pain, however, when your soul cries for you not to. Is that understandable?"

  "Yeah." It didn't sound fun, but he got the idea. It was about teaching him to face his first mode. From a very sideways fashion. To do that he always had to challenge his fear and feelings of sickness, each and every time he tried. That was the program here. Go into the pain.

  Hobbs smiled and instructed them both to begin. It really was unpleasant. The icy heat of being burned meant that he had to pull his hand b
ack after twenty seconds, holding it there as tears came to his eyes. That was twice what Bridget could do, but on the return it was clear that she was way faster, just doing it over and over again without hesitation. He really didn't want to. It was his goal, so he did, feeling like he should scream in pain, even after his hand healed each time. Slowly, trying as hard as he could, he managed to speed up a bit.

  The girl next to him held out longer too, and finally they were working in synch, grabbing a coal at the same time, holding it for half a minute and pulling back almost as one. Then twenty seconds later, healed, they both tried it again. This lasted for about fifteen minutes when Hobbs bowed to them.

  "Enough. I desire for each of you to remember your portion. Hold that for the rest of the day. The sense of either placing your hand back or holding against the urge to withdraw. Now, Denis, if you would?"

  The man opened his eyes and sighed, but didn't argue about it, since Hobbs had moved to Tobin's little black metal grill on its stand and stood ready. When Denis got into place, they both, without hesitation, picked up a coal and held it. Denis used his left hand for the task, as did the other man, but they didn't set theirs down after half a minute either, holding them on open palms that were clearly burning. Neither made a face, though Denis closed his eyes and was breathing heavily.

  They kept it up, until the coals lost their heat, both of them burned and blistered.

  When Denis opened his eyes, the bit of burning removed from his hand, Bridget shook her head, the movement large and overly dramatic.

  "Okay, so I'm a pussy. That's the real point here, isn't it? Damn that's hard core."

  The formerly rude and somewhat mean man smiled at the girl and then Tobin, who he actually got along with well enough.

  "No, you aren't a wimp. Neither of you are. What you did was something that almost no one would really even try. Still, next time Hobbs and I get to use super healing powers, and you two get to hold the things until they go cold, so practice, like Hobbs said." He grinned, but so did Hobbs and there was a difference between them.

  Denis was kidding, but for some reason, Tobin didn't really think the other man was taking it that way at all.

  Chapter four

  After that little event, which was more than a bit humbling, he was led away by a rather anxious seeming girl, who headed directly to his room, making a face when they got to his door.

  "You didn't mention that you had a date with Georgia for lunch. So shower and change for that. Picnic. Nice weather for it. I get you tomorrow. It's the fourth after all, so we need to go and help get things around for the barbeque. Mark is in charge of that. Do you have condoms?" She said it all in a rush, as if it weren't three different topics.

  He didn't of course, but when he stammered that out, the girl just shook her head a bit.

  "If you're going to play with Georgia you need to have protection. Even if you probably can't catch anything, we don't need you to accidently get her pregnant. It's a social responsibility thing. I'll get you some from medical." She pushed him through the door, but ran off, either to get those prophylactics or to do something else that would probably be more useful. After all, he didn't really think that they were going to go on a lunch beyond the fence for modesty's sake. The woman would gladly have sex in the hallway after all.

  No, she had something else in mind.

  Still, it didn't hurt to be clean, so he showered and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, along with running shoes. It wasn't the best look he could have, but it fit the idea at least. The two of them going for a friendly walk and a meal.

  To his slight shock, Georgia showed up at his door about the same time that Bridget came back, her arms loaded with blankets and a heavy looking basket that had a lid on it.

  The girl smiled at the older woman, who was nearly a foot taller than she was, but not quite and squeezed her butt with her whole right hand. The woman didn't pull away, but did shake her head a bit.

  "Not fair, jailbait." That was all that was mentioned and Bridget pulled back, handing about twenty condoms to Tobin.

  "Here you go." She shifted her glance to Georgia, who didn't act like she was shocked or worried about the implications of such things at all. "I told him that he wasn't allowed to get you pregnant. It would look bad."

  "That would. Well, we should go?" The lady smiled and then handed all the gear to him. It wasn't heavy, but did require a bit of concentration, so that he didn't accidently let things slip.

  They walked out the front gate and headed left, both of them dressed for adventure it seemed, the woman in regular person clothing, and not her normal outfits which tended to be a bit form hugging. Revealing too, when she could get away with it. He knew this, because she told him as they walked, making small talk. Until they arrived at the little stream, under some trees. They were like giant Christmas ones. No decorations however, unless pinecones counted?

  "This looks like a good spot. Just a bit back from the water. It's nice and cool here. In the shade."

  They both worked to put the blankets down and then the basket, the three things spread out a bit, so that they could lean back and still have a relatively soft time of it, having padding. The food was all put out and there was, as he'd thought, way too much of it. Georgia took healthy enough portions, for all that she'd complained about having to watch her figure the day before. Whatever else being her entailed it didn't involve a need to really starve herself to stay lean.

  A lot of Infected were like that, needing to eat more than average people to keep going. Really, the fact that he didn't was kind of rare at the base. He nibbled on a small sandwich that had cucumber inside, along with mayonnaise and some herbs. It was tasty enough, and seemed refined. Georgia got a bottle out, which he realized was sparkling apple cider, which was both romantic and sensible at the same time. Anyone watching would think they were really on a date, not that anyone would easily be doing that there. They had coverage on five sides. That didn't mean no one could find them, but pictures would be hard to get. So would clear sound of what they spoke about, being right by the water.

  After the food was about done, or at least what they planned to have of it, he decided to go first, smiling, but feeling a bit dark about the whole thing. It was about as close to a real date as he'd ever gotten after all, and it would have been nice if there was a chance that things would progress a little. At least to hand holding.

  That was first base, wasn't it?

  "So..." He forced himself to remember to reach for the coal, that moment of decision that let him do something that hard and kept going. It didn't make it any easier, but he tried. "You didn't bring me here for sex. Is there something you wanted to discuss?" What that might be he didn't really know but the woman looked surprised. Probably that he got it so quickly.

  "What? I mean, yes, I do want to talk, but of course we're here for sex too. I mean, have you met me before? It's what I do. I love doing it. I... Really, what gave you the idea that we weren't going to have sex?" She seemed more concerned about that than anything, so he managed an answer, after a bit of turning a brilliant shade of green. All over too, which was what he saved for when he was especially embarrassed.

  "Well, some of the guys on Team Two said that you didn't like... Funny looking people." It was him trying not to call them all uglies, but she made a cross eyed gesture and stuck her tongue out a little bit. It was funny, rather than cute, but it left him feeling a bit better anyway.

  "Oh, bull. I've slept with almost everyone that asked if I wanted to, since I popped. The only exceptions have been Bridget, Clark and anyone that was too big of an asshole when they tried to get me into bed. Like Crandall. I bet you heard stories about what a bitch I was from him?"

  It was true that whenever her name came up, his voice was always right in there, saying nasty things about her.

  "Yeah. He's good-looking too. I mean, odd, but not ugly like me."

  That got her to make slightly more upset face.

  "First, you're cu
te. OK, so it's like a muppet, but if you think that means you can't get girls, you do not have an idea about what some of them get up to with their teddy bears... So no more of that. If you aren't a player, it's your own fault, not how you look. Especially here. I mean, you never even asked me out, so when were we supposed to get busy? Second, Crandall... Do you know what the first thing he said to me was?"

  Tobin didn't, that never having come up at all.

  "Nope?"

  "He said, and this is a quote, 'I hear you're a slut. I wanna fuck your ass.' Worse, it didn't sound sexy, or embarrassed, or just like he was being honest about what he wanted, because... well, you know, by any definition I am a slut and own it. I even do anal on the first date. He sounded mean about it though, like he hated me for being who I am. I thought that it was his first mode, but when I asked around it turned out that he doesn't have one. He's not actually Infected at all, just someone's research project to make a super soldier."

  That was what the story was at least. It was part of why Crandall just had one name and no code. He wouldn't talk about his past at all.

  She went on.

  "So, yes, I turned him down. A few others too, but I don't hate people for being unique. It's actually one of the things I love about this place. The variety here is fantastic. So, yes, not only are you getting laid today, but pretty much whenever you want. Even if you suck at it. You're a virgin, right?"

  Hence the meanly named Virgin Tour.

  "Yeah." He couldn't turn anymore green at the moment, but she didn't seem to care really.

  "Well, good. I can show you some things so that you'll impress the others when you start dating them. Really, you need to start going out with Kerry, from Team Two. Really dating. She's high enough profile that she needs to be attached to someone soon, or everyone will think she's gay, or sleeping with her brother. There's been some rumors already and that isn't good. She's really sweet, but not homosexual at all. Not even bi. She likes you, however, so you should ask her if she wants to. The worst she might do is say no, in which case you can just keep doing things with me. Win-win."