The Infected: Ripped to Shreds (Book 1): Hush

by Power, P. S.

  The flow went on that way, without stopping.

  What Doug said was more entertaining however, than what he was thinking, which was just that she looked cute.

  "Your nickname is Sin? Wicked. Here, let me shift around here." He moved enough that she ended up between Impulse and the outside of the table, so she wouldn't be trapped with them.

  Funnily enough, everyone got the reasoning. Not that she was going to be able to outrun them, if it came to it. It was, she realized, the most dangerous situation that Cindy had ever been in. Any of these people could not just kill her, but everyone in the place. Doug could do it all at one time, and the only thing that might save them from that would be Impulse.

  They were all also good people. There was a killer there, but that was her. The rest of them weren't nearly as into it as all that. They'd all taken lives, but the others were normal people that had regrets about it. Even Proxy.

  Bridget kicked her lightly under the table. She was nearly sitting across from her, even though the idea was to place Cindy facing Brian. His friends were all helping him out, but using something close to subtlety about it. All except Hobbs, who watched her closely, smiling in a fixed gaze. That left her feeling uneasy, but he was just covering how best to kill her, so she let it go. He didn't have a reason why he should do it, so nothing would be happening.

  When the waitress came, she had help. Two people holding several plates each. The woman tried to set it all on the table, but that wasn't going to work. The booth could fit six, and had five, but little Bridget had ordered ten plates of stuff. Everyone just looked on awkwardly for a bit, with Bridget knowing what to do, which was to dump some of the plates onto the others. She just didn't want to seem like a pig in public. The thing was, she really did need to eat, and soon.

  Cindy shrugged.

  "Consolidate the plates? The fries can all go on one, I think. That kind of thing?" It made sense, and the girl was clearly relieved that someone else was the one saying the obvious. That way she could blame her for it later, if anyone complained. It was a great idea actually, so Cin took one of them and used the girl's fork to get it done. That meant Bridget was doing the same a few seconds later, which turned ten plates into four, the others already having ordered. It wasn't all for the kid, it seemed. Just most of it.

  The heaped food looked good, but she didn't need that much food, herself. More than most girls, true, but she tended to only get hungry every few days for some reason. She was now, so smiled and waved a bit at the waitress. Sherry. She had a name tag on.

  "Could I get, um, a burger, fries and some onion rings?" She didn't have a menu, which meant they negotiated what exactly she meant on all of it.

  After the woman left, Impulse looked up from stuffing her face. It was very near to a literal thing. She did chew and swallow, but it was all done with a will that was surprising to see.

  Between bites the kid looked across the table.

  "Thanks. I was a bit stuck for a second there. Do you eat a lot too? That wasn't a salad you ordered." It was clear that everyone else there thought the question was rude, but Cin just wrinkled her nose, trying for cute. It wasn't that hard, being small, trim and blonde. Her nose was just button-ish enough for it to really work that way.

  "Sort of? I don't have to eat most of the time, but I make up for it when I do. Plus, I hear you're paying for all of us? I can't let that pass me by, can I?" There was a grin then, and a hand wave from the girl, and Brian looked away, a bit embarrassed by the interplay.

  The others started to eat, but he held off, until she waved at him. "Eat. You can all wait for me on the other side. Unless Bridget gets seconds?"

  There did seem to be a very good recall of the dessert menu from the girl. Complete with pictures. It was clear that she was kind of on at the moment, since all of them, including the people around them, had things like that going on suddenly. That wasn't normal. She got pictures from almost everyone around. Along with text.

  Still, it was easy to see, and when she looked around she noticed that there were several young men and two women, in a booth closer to the door. Since one of them had a really nice visual of him rather violently choking Impulse with his dick, and another had called in friend to help take down the "Dirty Infected" already, it looked like a set up to her.

  Looking at Brian she shrugged.

  "Change seats with me? I need to see the people by the door. Something's going on."

  Brian didn't wait, or even look at her funny, just standing, and moving smoothly. Not fast or anything. Just like it was about him wanting to be next to Bridget. To sell that she stole some fries from her, and smiled, reading carefully without getting caught staring, which made it look like she was looking longingly into Brian's eyes, she hoped. He didn't think so, getting the idea, however.

  Hobbs was suddenly right on top of things, his words changing from a general treatise on death, to becoming very aware of his surroundings. He didn't look at the door, using a reflection to see who was there.

  "Five in all?" The words from the man.

  She didn't even have to look at him to get what he meant. The words swung in, so that she could read them. The page behind them looked a pale yellow, like an ancient text, and the words were hand written, but very clear. He was assessing the potential fight to come already.

  The effect was fascinating. Before she'd always had to look at people to read them. Looking at Brian, she tried to bring up the ring leaders page, which swung in too. It took a bit to find the right part, because she had to go back, which was never much fun, but after a minute she shook her head.

  "Something like fifty? There's a militia coming? We can probably leave now. I'd hate to miss the free burger though." That part was true. She was starving and so was Bridget, who smiled at her broadly.

  "I know what you mean. These aren't bad for a Denny's. Mark would cry, but what he doesn't know won't get my tummy in trouble. Fifty? I can do that. Really, what are they thinking? Do they have tanks or rocket launchers? I wouldn't take on any of us without at least that."

  That took more research, but that was her thing, so it wasn't too hard. The big issue was that Levi the asshole bigot didn't know all of that. The group he was with was the biggest one, over in Portland. That they weren't all made up of hipsters was interesting, but it seemed like they actually had some ex-military involved. Ones smart enough to bring more than a pipe to fight three of the most powerful beings on the planet.

  They didn't know about Hobbs at all, which was their loss. They also weren't accounting for her, thankfully. Not that she wasn't going to be killed too, since the only way to do anything here would involve explosives and innocent patrons. On the good side it was going to take at least an hour to get them all together. They had to travel, and didn't have a plan for that location.

  She explained all of that, which got Hobbs to smile at her directly. That wasn't real, just being his default expression. A thing that he'd trained for, on purpose.

  "Oh? That sounds like it might be in our favor then! First we should remove these five as a threat. Do any possess weapons or powers of note?"

  Oddly enough one of the women had a handgun, which the others didn't know about. The other girl had pepper spray, but wasn't really in on the plan. The guys weren't ready for anything all that physical, and didn't even have pocket knives on them. She related this to the others, as Bridget kept eating.

  Then she got to do the same as Sherry the waitress came back, with her burger. It was still warm, and it was clear that she'd hurried with it, coming right over. She felt harried however, which meant that she felt late, even though she'd done it about as fast as humanly possible.

  "I'm so sorry this took so long. Do you need ketchup or anything?"

  "Um, do you have any vinegar, for the fries?" That got a concerned look and a head shake, since very few places did that out west. They did back home. Not every place, but it was worth asking about.

  No one noticed that, but fries were fine pl
ain. She did her own eating for a bit, while Brian used the phone. Calling in reinforcements, so, hopefully, they wouldn't have a Denny's ruining fight. That would be rude and make it hard to get breakfast the next morning. The hotel they were staying in was just down the street, making it really convenient that way.

  She tried her new trick, holding the page as she looked away, her mouth full of burger. It really wasn't bad. Even with a head start Bridget finished at the same time Cin did, which given everything meant that several desserts were being ordered. Hobbs and Doug skipped that, but Brian had a piece of pie, and Bridget had one of everything on the menu.

  Cindy just shook her head after that.

  "I don't want to be too full, if I have to fight. Just, if it comes up, I get the scrawny looking guy on the outside. He has a bad back, and his right knee is shot. I guess I'll see if all that practice pays off?"

  That got a nod from Hobbs, as if the most natural thing for a tiny woman to say was that she was able to fight, and a pleasant smile from Brian.

  "Oh? What do you do?" It was just conversational, but he meant it, actually being interested.

  "Mixed martial arts. So there's a bit of everything. I don't compete, for the obvious reasons. I do all right though, when I can find very small muggers." She didn't have to explain, since they all got her meaning. Except Bridget.

  She just wanted dessert. Even thinking that death and destruction might be upon then, her main concern was the food. It was kind of adorable. Proxy was very aware of her suddenly. Part of it was fear. The soft panic of understanding that him being there was a danger to her.

  She shook her head.

  "This isn't about you. It's all Bridget here. The price of fame. Also the price of delusion. They saw you on the news, but it didn't really seem to sink in. What you did, I mean." Cindy looked at the girl, who was next to her now.

  Impulse, looking like a child in her pink dress, screwed her face up a bit.

  "Damn. Here I was incognito, too. I didn't even wear makeup or anything. I guess I should have slipped on some glasses?" She did not seem concerned, for her part. "Well, it isn't a big deal. If the Agents can't get them to leave, I can handle it. I better not ruin my new clothes. That will not make me happy." Her voice was piping and slightly higher pitched than what was comfortable to listen to.

  It didn't carry however, and when the dessert came she ate like it was just a normal part of life.

  There was good news however, as they went outside. The police had been brought in on it, and managed to stop about half of the incoming people. Not all of them, and while there were four agents coming to help out, they'd been delayed. By a flat tire, of all things.

  So, as they walked out the front door they were met by a decently large crowd of people. Mostly men, and mostly armed. Handguns and rifles for most of them, which made the whole thing pretty darned illegal. Snapping her fingers, Cindy ran back inside, and rather shamelessly stole a pad of paper and a pen from the front desk. They'd left it unguarded, making it fair game.

  Then, once outside again, she looked around in the snow, and started writing down license plate numbers. No one got what she was doing, except Proxy, who smiled at her. As soon as he turned to the others there, the attackers, he went cold however.

  "You really don't want, or need, to do this. Go away. Now." It didn't seem friendly, and a few of the larger men in the crowd bristled. Like they wanted to fight him with their fists.

  Their side, if she was on one of those, didn't have any weapons out, and for her part everyone ignored what she was doing. True, she didn't know what cars people had come in, but there were fresh tracks now, so she could tell who had pulled in most recently. She was on the tenth car when something finally happened. That was Impulse being shot. In the face.

  The girl bobbed back a bit, then grinned. It wasn't really happy, but she was faking it like an actress might, in case there were cameras catching the whole thing. It was better than the rage she was sort of feeling suddenly.

  "Okay-doke! That means that I get to play now. Just so you all get this, you're under arrest. I'm Infected and will be using Infected powers to affect that arrest. If you resist, I can, and will, subdue you. That will probably mean you die. Lie down on the ground, now, and drop your weapons."

  That got her shot several more times. Then, almost as one, a cry and clatter went up, as every visible weapon hit the ground with a clang. A few people screamed as their guns suddenly weighed half a ton or more. It damaged the parking lot a bit, where they hit. The metal even made a few sparks, but nothing went off.

  Doug, the super hero known as Gravity winced at that.

  "Darn it. I think I over did things again. It was probably the thing where they shot that little girl, you know?" He was watching the crowd, and joking about the whole thing, even if the wince had been real. He'd honestly tried for about a tenth of what he'd just done. The man was just that powerful.

  Then, without pausing to ask the collected people to politely lie down in the cold slush again, Proxy and Hobbs moved. People just started falling then, hitting the ground with cries of pain. Cindy looked around, and noticed her friend with the bad back was hobbling towards Hobbs. Before he got there, she ran up behind him and stomped the back of his right knee. That caused a scream, too. A delicious one. There was a rewarding crunching feeling under her nice shoe at the same time. It was slippery out, so when she was tackled by a large bearded man they both went down. That hurt.

  Enough that she lost it for a moment, and just fought, getting hit a few times. The asshat was huge, being over three times her weight, she bet. Still, she ripped at his eyes well enough, and that got him to roll over, trying to stand up and get away from her. Slipping a choke hold on him, she tossed her meager weight to the side, which caused him to end up on top of her. That was kind of crushing, but he was still being choked out, and his friends had a harder time getting to her. So as long as she could hold her breath longer than he could go without blood to his brain, she was fine.

  A few men tried to kick her, thinking that she was trapped, which wasn't wrong, but most of them hit their buddy, the big man. That helped him go out a bit faster, though she was going to be stuck there, surrounded like she was. That wasn't fair, but that was fighting. She started by using all her strength to roll the man off of her to the left, and kicking at some knees, hitting only one of them before the world went almost silent.

  Her elbow had a bloody scuff on it, and her entire outfit was soaked. Dirty, too. Looking over she realized that Bridget was still tidy. Then, she had declared her goal of not getting her new clothing ruined. Proxy and Hobbs had the people on the ground though, and it looked like their backup was finally there. It seemed like too little, too late, but the men in black brought them a large container of plastic handcuffs, and helped them use it on the twenty-seven people on the ground.

  Looking at the scene, she headed over to Proxy. He wasn't untouched, but other than scuffed knuckles, and a damp knee he didn't look too bad. Hobbs was in about the same condition she was, but he'd managed some cool looking rolling moves that had cut people down as he did it. The man wasn't even shaking yet, which she was. From the cold. It was snowing after all, and she wasn't huge.

  "This is so a cocoa moment." That got Bridget to nod and jog over to her. Steady the entire time, even as she left tracks in the slush.

  "Great idea. We'll be inside. We should treat those wounds anyway. I wonder if they have a first aid kit?"

  It turned out that there was one, and they were allowed to use the back room, so that they wouldn't be treating cuts in the food areas.

  There was a chair, which Bridget gestured to, her face going harder than it had been before.

  "Morons. I can't even have a meal out anymore. This isn't the first time this has happened. This is supposed to be a vacation for me. Believe it or not, I was looking forward to a relaxing holiday. My mom and dad are coming in tomorrow, to meet Great Grandma and Grandpa. They aren't married, or even that o
ld. Like, in their forties? Brian went back in time and knocked up my grandma in the early eighties. That really isn't common knowledge." There was a slightly pouty look then.

  The young lady knew better than to go giving out all the secrets, but her first mode made that too hard to resist sometimes. Part of it at the moment was nerves. Like anyone else fighting tended to leave her feeling jazzed up. That meant her control got shaky. So she opened her mouth to near strangers. The other part was that she liked Cindy already.

  That was surprising, since other than stealing some fries from her, they hadn't had much to bond over.

  Cindy smiled and shook her head a bit then.

  "I caught some of that one earlier. My power, you know?"

  That left the redhead feeling better. She didn't need medical help herself, ever, healing almost instantly from anything that actually hurt her, which most things couldn't. Still, she was good with the bandages, had the two major scrapes covered up about three minutes later.

  As she finished the girl patted Cindy on the shoulder.

  "That was sooo neat! Brian will be all worked up, but you should totally date him. He's really nice. Smart and funny, too. Plus you have stuff in common. You both like kicking butt. I mean, who doesn't, but it's a good start."

  Cin nodded, since it was about as good of a plan as anything. After all, the point was to stay close enough that no one would suspect her without her knowing about it. Hanging out with them based on the idea that she wanted to tear off a piece of Proxy was a good enough one.

  "If he wants to date me now. That wasn't exactly the best introduction, was it?" She glanced down at her sodden skirt and rolled her eyes a bit.

  The girl pretended not to get her meaning. It was sort of obvious, but her intent was kind enough.