Infected 8: Impulse: A Whole New Day

by P. S. Power

  She didn't slow down, since they were nearly to the rally point. The woods weren't that dense, but in a few places there was thick undergrowth. Bushes, a few trees that were decently large. A car hidden under a bunch of branches. It was obvious to her, but even when she pointed to it, the others didn't see it for a long time. Finally Ed made a sound and pointed where she had.

  "Tis a transport! Cleverly disguised as a bit of foliage. Truly, it is a thing I would not have thought to expect. Will your people aid us, do you think, Lady Bridget?"

  "Oh, yeah. You're our peeps too, so that's not an issue." Not for the Elcampayns. She was a bit concerned with what to do about Charity however. The girl was Infected, so one of theirs, but she could pass, too. Being with them right now, if she didn't need to be, that was probably a poor idea. Ed had promised her help though. So what were they going to do?

  Well, first, she decided, she'd move in front of the rest of them, so that Lancaster didn't shoot them all. Or set them on fire. That would suck. He could generate flames in the air that were hot enough to vaporize flesh. The little spot in her arm that she'd cooked earlier had hurt enough that she didn't want to risk that happening if she could help it. Not even if she'd be healed from it a minute or two later.

  Doug could have made their lives pretty hard too, she realized. His power was an area of effect control over gravity. Crushing her wouldn't work, since she was way too strong for that, but it would influence the others pretty well. Possibly killing them. Not that he was that kind of guy.

  What had worked in practice against her though, to her surprise, was when he made the world pull her away at a strange angle and then kept doing it in different directions. She could fly, and use that to stabilize herself a bit, but it wasn't a skill that could equal the world simply betraying her like that. She hated being betrayed, after all. It was so hard to counter, and then you could never trust the ones that had done it again. Not ever.

  Still, by being in the front, she got Lancaster to move out from behind a tree, some fifty feet off. The other man wasn't visible, but she could smell that he was there. Hiding. A bit stressed, from the tang in the air. They all were. Even her. True, that was about her concern for everyone else, but it was still there.

  "Bridget. I see you brought friends?" He didn't have a gun pulled, but, she realized, the rest of them did. All of them were pointed away from the rest of the people, and down at the ground. Well, she didn't have one, except in her large green knapsack.

  "The two tall ones are Ed and Deidre Elcampayn. They're... I guess the best way to put it is that they're Hobbs's adopted kids? The other girl is Charity. She's Infected. Probably class three. Empathy and coercion. A bit like Denis, at a guess, except that from what she said she can read too, and doesn't seem as strong going the other way." That was all guesswork, but she went on anyway. "Pretty well controlled first mode, so she can pass. Compassion, I think. Her dad is out of town, and we just didn't know what else to do with her, or we would have gotten her away from us already." It was the truth, and not meant to sound snotty or anything. It seemed like no one took it that, way either. She'd been a bit worried that Charity might take offense, not understanding the idea.

  Lancaster, who was muscular, blond and good looking enough that Deidre was watching him with a tiny smile already, took the time to look around before speaking. It was careful observation of his surroundings and the kind of thing he always did, no matter where he was.

  "It might be best if you head out on your own then. The last thing you really want is to be linked with people like us right now. How did the mission go?" That last bit was directed directly at her, Bridget knew.

  "I vamped, and didn't shoot up the police force, or their station. I told them that I was from the Totally Clean Christians, and that we'd smuggled a nuke into the IPB headquarters. Right before it went off. Then I shouted about it, in disguise, for a while. I know that wasn't the plan, but they seemed to be buying it, and really, it made sense at the time."

  Rather than have a problem with her version of things, he cleared his throat.

  "Not bad. Better than a firefight. They won't buy it when they realize there's no radiation, but that could take hours still. You can probably come out now, Gravity."

  That he'd used Doug's code name was a sign that he thought they were still on the mission. He was better at things like that than she was, so she turned to look at the spot the sound was coming from, in time to see a decent looking guy with black hair move out from behind a tree. He had on a blue t-shirt and some jeans, and while a bit square looking, it seemed like muscle for the most part now, rather than lard. He'd been pretty chubby before, but now he looked cute enough to be worth watching.

  She didn't notice it really happening, but was on him then, in a rush. Just giving him a hug, which was returned without it being too awkward. She stopped the rest of the move, which involved some deep kissing and the offer to have sex with her right there. That was her mode taking over, so she moved back, not letting it. For now.

  After all, he'd hugged her back. That was a good sign, and she might be able to get more of that kind of thing from him later, if she didn't make him too afraid now. She was, like it or not, his best friend's granddaughter. So if she didn't make too big of a thing of things, he might just put out, sometime. Forgetting about how unlikely that was.

  For once, reality was on her side on the issue. No one could look at Brian and think that he was old enough for that kind of thing, because he simply wasn't. It was just a matter of getting the man in front of her used to touching her casually like that for a while, so it would seem normal to him later, when she tossed him down and had her way with him. It was coming, as long as she didn't blow it.

  Or him. Not too soon.

  That thought nearly had her on her knees, trying to get him to like her, but she fought for control, working to not to let anything show on her face.

  Charity looked troubled, her short black hair, which was a boy cut, but not butch looking, was a little messed up from their hike through the woods.

  "I don't want to be a problem, but I... Really don't have anywhere to go. My dad, he's in North Dakota, doing oil field work. He sends money. I...That sounds bad, doesn't it? There just aren't a lot of good jobs here, but we have the house. I..."

  Lancaster just looked at her, his ice blue ice cold. Unfeeling. Agent like.

  "There will be some kind of temporary shelters set up, or you could camp out for a few days. The town won't be closed down forever. My guess is that you need to be prepared for a week." He glanced at the rest of them, his face not betraying anything. "I have some food for you Chambers. What's your play here?"

  Bridget felt her mouth water, but thought she understood the idea. She was able to pass as normal too, and while two young girls going around together might be an invitation for some panic rape, if the wrong people caught them, Charity would be a lot better off having her there than not. He might seem like a tool at times, but there was a tiny nudge for her there. In the direction of staying with the new girl. Not that she really wanted to camp for a week. Not without food. She could hunt however, and steal enough to survive. Maybe take some of the food that Will's bigoted family had put by? That both made sense and would be fun.

  "I'll eat first, then Charity and I will vanish for a bit. I'll meet up with you at the location in ten days." That would be a week of waiting and then three nights of travel cross country on foot. True, she could run it in a lot less time from that, since Montana wasn't that far away from Colorado, but it paid to be careful.

  That got a strange reaction from the others. Doug nodded, since he was so easy going that he didn't really get worked up, but Ed turned a deep red color. At first she figured that he was angry with her, but when he spoke, the tone was one of pure embarrassment.

  "Nay. I... gave my word of protection to her. I must see her to her domicile. Else I will be foresworn..."

  Bridget blinked.

  Not because she didn't think
the boy would do what he'd said, but because camping out with all of them, the Elcampayns and Charity, would be more of a chore than just the one girl. Besides, so far she was the useful one. Pulling her to safety when Bridget might have been hurt and getting them past the guards in town.

  The thing there was that the boy was also a lot more into the whole honor thing than not. If she told him that he had to go against his word... Well, it just wouldn't be happening, would it? There would be an argument and in the end she'd have to fight him over the issue. Given how easily she'd win, that would hurt his feelings even more and then she'd be cried at, or at least subjected to pouting. Instead she nodded, and looked at Deidre.

  "Can you go with Doug and Lancaster? They're Hobbs men, so you know, you'll be safe. They won't abuse you too much, or anything." She grinned and nearly added that Deidre tossing them off a few times would probably be enough, just to see if Ed would back down and go with his sister, to protect her. It was just as well that she didn't since the shy little alien girl handled that part pretty nicely.

  "Nay, I shall but offer my body to them, to slake their manly desires, to pay my passage. Tis no worry, kind cousin. When left unguarded a woman will do as she must in order to survive. That is the way of all worlds, I don't mischance." There was a shy look away from her brother, or slightly toward Doug, who was looking back at the girl with a bit too much shock on his face, rather than the raw lust that might make the whole thing work.

  Lancaster didn't help either, laughing a bit. It was dark and sad sounding, but not sinister.

  "That's a point. Ed, you should come with us, to protect our virtue, from your sister. Chambers has this. She's a fully trained Operative, not just a kid. Looks aside. That might even help in this case as long as you two lay low. Think you can handle it?"

  Bridget nodded, because yeah, she could camp out for a bit, and so could Charity. She looked at Ed however, who was clearly up on what everyone had been doing to him.

  "Honestly, I can. Better than if we had more people along. Really, Charity could do it alone, but I can go with her, for company. We'll double back to Mary's shop later today and hide there. Or out back at least. That way we can pretty much vanish and keep an eye on things." It was closer to the base, being on the other side of town. It would mean a lot of walking for Charity, but if she didn't mind they could just camp out that night and walk around the long way. It would make it easier than hiding from soldiers, and crawling through town directly.

  Lancaster gave her a direct look that didn't even hint at the idea that she might be the wrong person for the task. Then, really, there wasn't a lot of risk to her in it, was there? The real danger was all going to be for Charity. If they got caught, it would associate her with Impulse, the well known Infected girl. The IPB Operative and poster child of the organization. One of them at any rate.

  That wasn't lost on the man, but the concept behind it was clear. It was a training mission for her. Keep Charity safe and alive. Except it wasn't training anymore, was it? This was real, and if she messed up, the girl might just die.

  So, she reflected, keeping her face blank, no pressure or anything.

  The man looked at each of them, including Doug, and gave a single nod.

  "Right. Tibs, you're in with them. Remember, the objective is to be invisible. I'd rather send Cooper in for this one, but you two can handle it. Right now we need to offload the food. It's in the trunk."

  That got taken out with a bit of teamwork and strangers or not, Lancaster had the Elcampayn kids tucked into the vehicle, and was driving away without looking back some ten minutes later. Bridget smiled and started opening cans of food, using the pull tops for that. She didn't eat, as much as drink, the contents of the things for a long while. She had to pace her eating since her stomach was only so large. That meant doing it while they walked. At least she could fit it all in her bag. The remainder at least. There was a heavy bottle of oil too, which she eyed carefully. Thoughtfully, she hoped.

  It was hard to just down things like that. Disgusting and bland at the same time. It was also nearly enough calories to keep her going for a few hours, if she did it. The food she'd had stopped the pain in her middle, but she didn't know what was going to be needed, energy wise, did she? Sighing, she tried to clear her mind, like Hobbs had taught her to do, and drank the container dry, without stopping or letting it move away from her lips.

  It took a lot more discipline than she thought she had, and her middle felt too full when she was done, but that would fade. She metabolized things too fast for that feeling to last long. Doug just watched her blandly as she drank it all, then turned to Charity and gave her a charming look.

  "You know, before I met her and her grandmother, Rachel, I thought that being able to eat all the time like that would be fun. You know, not having to worry about calories or having an extra sandwich every now and then? It's way too much though. I don't think it's better that way. I guess I'll stick to just eating a lot of salad and keeping the cake to a minimum."

  It wasn't said in a mean way, so Bridget winked at him, wiping the oil off her mouth.

  "On the good side, after that, I could probably deep throat you without any trouble. It's gross." She waved the bottle in the air. "Drinking oil like that. I got the idea from Marcia. She has to eat a lot too. Lucky her though, she doesn't have to taste it. Speaking of deep throating things, have you hit that yet?" She started walking, knowing that she was being a bit improper. It was just to distract Charity though, not her actually trying to hook up with Gravity on a mission. She wasn't that big of a newb, after all.

  The girl, who was a nice deep tan color, looked awkward and embarrassed, but followed when Bridget started to walk away.

  Probably due to the talk.

  Doug snorted.

  "Nah. She's my boss, so that wouldn't be good. She's nice though, isn't she?"

  That was a hard thing for her to answer, but given that there was an empath there, she decided to go with her honest feelings on the matter.

  "She's all right, I guess. We used to be partners, but she kind of helped set things up about a year ago, so that everyone would think that I was sleeping with my dad. I get that her first mode makes it so that she suspects almost everything, all the time, but that kind of hurt. It still does. First mode crap though, so I'm working on letting that go. For her." That was a good place to stop, and no one grilled her on what she meant. Doug hadn't been there for it, and if Charity was good enough to nearly read minds, she either understood the whole idea, or wasn't working her mojo on Bridget at the moment.

  Both worked for her.

  "She is pretty cute though. Really, I don't think she's actually your boss now either. Do we even have the IPB anymore? I say, if you see her again you should invite her to bed. Anyone else that you might be interested in too. Who knows if you'll ever get even that much of a chance?" That was a bit dismal, but she managed to rally after a bit. "For now, why don't you make things lighter under Charity, so that we can speed up a bit? The route I have in mind will take about fifteen miles of walking. We can't do too much, but saving on sore feet won't hurt anything."

  The other girl sighed.

  "My feet are already killing me. I don't walk much. We've gone what, twenty miles already today?"

  Looking over her tiny shoulder at her, Bridget winced.

  "Just a bit over five. Here, Doug, can you help her out?" If he made the area of effect small enough it wouldn't burn too much of his energy, she didn't think. It was hard to tell with different people's powers though, and they'd never talked about it. Georgia, from Team One had mentioned that she had to watch her weight all the time, even though she was always putting out at least a little bit of effort that way. Some of the others burned vast amounts when they did their thing. She kind of thought that Doug really did use up a lot when he worked. He just didn't know it yet, since he'd started kind of chubby. Once he made a bit of effort, the pounds had really come off fast though, and that didn't happen for everyon
e. Not without a lot of struggle.

  He nodded, then set his mind to the task, which was mainly visible due to Charity kicking herself up into the air about two feet with her next step. Yelping. It would have been funny if they weren't trying to infiltrate an area teaming with armed men that had no reason not to shoot at them. It was even legit if they did, since they were, like it or not, the enemy now. Not morally, maybe, but as far as the government would be concerned the IPB would be on the shit list.

  Big time.

  Probably. To some of them it might actually not be that way. A government agency being attacked was a big deal. That got her thinking, but she kept her new ideas to herself. If things worked out, they could have the IPB, or something like it, without leaving her people in the middle of the coming meat grinder. Done right, even their enemies might just ignore them. That was for later, though.

  For the moment she had to resist the urge to laugh at Charity.

  "Gah!" She fell slowly though, drifting to Earth like a leaf, and landed without a lot of sound. It was the way that Bridget always imagined her own landings, when she flew. Normally right before the big thud came. She could get down on her feet now, most of the time, so things were better that way. For the first few months that had been pretty iffy really. A lot of the time she kind of had to roll out of her landings. It had been embarrassing.

  Bridget giggled, thinking about that. She did it softly, trying not to let things be too serious for the new girl. Not that she was on the team yet. Given everything it would be a lot better if that didn't happen. If they had any choice in the matter.

  "We call him Gravity for a reason. He's pretty much the master of it. Be careful though, and don't make too much noise. If we find any patrols, hide. Otherwise we'll probably have to kill them and that will just make problems. They'll try to shoot us, and we'll have to make them stop." Killing always did make a mess, it seemed.