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

by Power, P. S.

  "I don't drink. Could I have some water?" Normally she'd have gotten coffee, or even tea, but the man was trying to con them, on purpose.

  Brian nodded.

  "My favorite drink. Water. Could you make that two?" He smiled, picking up a lot of what was going on, if only inside of himself.

  The wine steward stiffened, blushed a bit, and gave a single nod.

  "It will be right up." It was really clear he wasn't happy about it. That was due to the fact that his pay came only when he got people to pay for booze. Overpriced grape juice in the main. Not that it wasn't quality, it was. It also had a three hundred percent mark up.

  Brian watched the man leave, and smiled knowingly. What it was he knew didn't show up over his head. What did was a scanning list of the room around them. All of the exits were arrayed, along with the best ways to get to them. There was also a running list of who in the room was gearing up for violence. At that moment, it was no one, which was good to know.

  His words were soft, when he spoke.

  "I was locked in a cell once, tied up, for five days with no food or water. Ever since then it's really been my favorite. I mean, I actually enjoy it, every time I get to have some. Bottled, water fountain... Mud puddle, it hardly matters." There was a bit too much candor in the words, but the story was a lot worse than what he said was.

  He'd nearly died, several times, all alone.

  She ignored that, since it wasn't what he was trying to get across to her. The point was to make sure she didn't feel bad about getting water instead of something harder. It was cute, she had to admit. Everyone had a history, but he was willing to risk himself just so she wouldn't feel bad about things.

  So she nodded.

  "I like it too. If you can't drink water, you die. I try to have some every day, myself." She let her eyes hood a bit, like she was being flirty, or trying too. It got a smile.

  "I know! Still, no accounting for taste. So..." It was clear he was stuck as for what to say then.

  Cindy nodded, reading about his growing sense of unease. Really, what he wanted was for her to ask a question. One that wasn't about his work, his previous relationships, or now that he'd brought it up, about being locked up in a cell. None of those were going to be great dinner conversation.

  "So, Brian... Do you have any hobbies?" A handy list of things popped up that he might say. They were pretty boring sounding, since most of the interesting things he did were about work or training. Not that talking about fighting wasn't going to interest her, but they could leave that for later. When they were alone.

  "Um... Reading? Playing video games, not that I get to do that much now." He was about to make some things up, knowing that even watching television, which he barely did, was better than not having anything.

  It was good enough for her.

  "I don't really play games. A few casual games, now and again. I do read a lot. It's pretty much my life, so, you know, that one is good. You like science fiction?" It had been on his list, so they were able to talk about that through the ordering, things coming slowly over the next hour.

  The funny thing was that Brian thought of the food as being about like what he was used to. It was good enough for her, but really, it sounded like he was a bit spoiled that way.

  Gourmet food all the time like that.

  Politely, since he didn't want to insult the people there, who were doing fine, really. He just lived with not one, but two or three world class chefs. The crew of a cooking show.

  Cindy nodded, getting that one.

  "Oh! You know the people from Steinberg and Friends, right? Um... Mark and..." She'd seen the show a few times, but wasn't that into food all the time, so hadn't memorized them all or anything. There was the strange hippie seeming guy, the gay one, and the incest twins. That was how she thought about them, in her head.

  Grimacing she shook her head.

  "Remind me to never be around a telepath that knows them? My nicknames for them are not all that positive. I liked the show all right, it was funny."

  Brian nodded then, looking earnest.

  "Mark Steinberg, Warren, Kerry, and Denis. Sometimes Scott is on the show, too. Prime?"

  She snapped her fingers.

  "Right. The funny looking one. He has pretty eyes though. I mean, I like purple well enough." She saw the trap instantly, so kept going, as if she meant what she said, which was just true. "He's your son, right? Bridget's father? It was a time travel thing, I heard?"

  Brian went still, but nodded after a moment, not that worried that she was making fun of his family a bit. The man was gold colored, and had violet eyes. It stood out. Not that he wasn't good looking, too. Nearly too perfect, which wasn't a thing she loved, most days. It also wasn't an idea to hold against anyone. No, he was just trying to put together how to tell her about all of that. The time travel, since a lot of it had kind of been bad, in a lot of ways. Some of it not so much, at the time.

  Later it was soured for him. Finding out that you were being used the whole time by your greatest enemy could do that, she guessed.

  Cin waved a bit. It was a meaningless thing to her, so to cover for him, she made a face and leaned in.

  "Is he nice? Scott? That would have to be hard, having a son that's older than you are."

  "You know it. All I can really do there is try to be there for him. Luckily we were friends before that. Imagine if we'd hated each other? I get along with most people, thankfully. Yep. Back at the base they call me 'Happy-Li'." It wasn't true, but it was a horrible pun, which he didn't react to on purpose.

  "Better than some things they could call you. Not much, but a little. Sauerkraut breath would be worse. So would smelly. No one wants that as a nickname, do they?"

  It wasn't great humor, but she got her chuckle, and then they got to decide if they were having dessert or not. She shook her head, and wrinkled her nose at him.

  "Let's not? We can get a gallon of ice cream and some toppings at the store, and take it back to my place? That's my best line, since I can't offer you a drink." Well, coffee, but that was hardly romantic.

  Brian nodded.

  "All right. Let me settle up here?" That took a while. It was nearly like they didn't want them to leave. Actually, they were so slow in letting them get the bill that Proxy was starting to get edgy by the time it finally came. He started looking around, trying to work out where the attack was going to come from.

  It would have seemed paranoid, if not for the night before.

  Looking around Cindy was able to work it out however, reading what the various workers were thinking. One of them had called in a friend who wanted to be a paparazzi, and they were trying to let the man ambush them on the way out.

  She looked at her mark and made a face, then whispered.

  "Cameramen incoming. Friend of the guy that works the door. He isn't planning anything other than that. Just pictures. Here... Hey! Check. Now!" She made sure her blue eyes flashed, like she was going to hurt someone. It did get a response. That was the check, and the payment was made fast. Brian tipped anyway, and went large on it, wanting to not be named as being cheap in the news the next day.

  Then, moving fast, they dashed to the car. Walking, but quickly. That let them avoid the would be camera jockey totally. She couldn't find anyone hiding behind a car or anything like that. Not until the man jumped out, waving a video camera like a fool.

  Proxy moved at him so fast it was hard for her to track. Like a cat pouncing on a mouse. The man went wide eyed, as she called out.

  "Camera!" It wasn't what she'd wanted to say, which was, "wait, he doesn't have a gun, just a camera." It was better than screaming duck, and surprisingly got the high strung fighter to stop dead. About a foot from the camera. With a gun pointed at it in a steady, dangerous looking stance. Like a cop in a movie.

  After half a second he pulled it up, and turned, looking around.

  "Oops. Maybe you shouldn't jump out at people like that?" He was talking to the man, who nodded r
apidly, but was still getting the whole scene, if the little red light meant anything.

  She didn't wait, getting in her car, and calling out, like they were on a military mission, rather than a date. It was kind of fun.

  "Get in! Rally at the fallback rendezvous! Call off the strike team. Call off the strike team!" She pretended to hold her right ear, like she was talking to someone. The look on the young white guys face was priceless. Especially after Brian turned and dashed to the car, and hopped in.

  Then stuck his head out of the window.

  "Run! Just in case we can't stop them in time! Go!"

  The man did, yelping as he did. Then, carefully, and calmly, Cin pulled out of the parking lot. Peeling out would have been more dramatic, but there was no real need for it now. The problem had fled.

  Looking over at him, she tilted her head, going for coquettish.

  "So, Safeway? Ice cream and cake? I think we've earned it."

  "Sounds good." He was still wired, as in for real. It was part of his training. Anything odd could be part of an attack, or a trap. So he couldn't help but act like a paranoid at that moment.

  To that end, and wanting him to like her, she drove them in a large circle, before heading to the store.

  "Is anyone following us?" Cindy wanted to smirk, but fought it. Turning to look into the night, Proxy turned to her and then back again.

  "Yes. We have two followers. The black sedan in the other lane, and the large silver van. We have to assume that they have us blocked in ahead, or will soon. Our best plan is to spread them out. I don't suppose that you'd be willing to speed a bit?"

  As it turned out, she was.

  Not that it helped a lot. The people behind them sped up, trying to keep pace with them. There were other cars on the road too, so she had to swerve a bit and focus hard. That... Got all of the words coming from Brian to vanish.

  Cindy glanced out the back, using the rearview mirror.

  "Fuck."

  "What? Do you see something?" Turning all the way around, seat unbuckled, he pointed the all black handgun that she'd seen earlier.

  Cindy took a breath, not wanting the guy to go off yet. It did look like they were being followed, and aggressively. That there was a problem was clear, but they didn't know what was going on, which was her point. Not that she'd said that yet.

  "No. My power isn't working. It's too tense, I guess. Hold on, hard left coming up in about ten seconds. Get a belt on." She didn't know if that was clear, but the thin man moved quickly, and held himself in place bracing with his hands, the gun pressed against the passenger side door.

  The turn made the tires squeal against the blacktop. It was sudden enough that the vehicles couldn't make it happen in time. One of them, the van, drove up on the sidewalk and hit a tree. That got Proxy to smile.

  "We have room to lose them. Keep going. I need to call this in and see if I can get..." What he wanted to have happen she didn't know. Hopefully it was the people being caught, or at least identified.

  Cindy hadn't known this about herself before that point, but now, suddenly, she realized that she didn't love being chased like that. It wasn't about her, but it was annoying. It made for a tense twenty minutes as they drove around and finally parked behind some bushes in an alley, the lights turned off.

  Brian had been on his cell, talking to someone who he didn't announce to her. She would have called that rude, but too much of her attention was being spent on trying to hide and pick up anything she could get. Her heart was pounding from the excitement, which didn't really keep her from doing her reading thing, she realized after a bit. As soon as her attention went to Proxy, the feed started again.

  So Cin could tell that he was talking directly to Marcia Turner. She was Infected too, but also in charge of the IPB. That the woman, and there was a picture of her that appeared in front of Cin's eyes, with tidbits of information under it. Skimming, the words moved fast, but she got the general idea.

  The woman was calling in a lot of people on it, including satellite imagery. That got her to look outside, since it was dark out, and there were clouds above. That the government might have super night vision or infra-red that could see from space wasn't a new thought for her, but if so, they'd still probably need to have a clear shot to the ground.

  Which explained why they weren't getting anything that way. What did work was getting tiny Impulse out, running up and down the streets. She moved fast, and her mind ran to distraction. It took careful reading, and was another computer like screen, but Cindy got it to come up along with Brian's. After all, she'd met her before, and connected with her words.

  Not that she'd ever done anything like that before really. Past twenty-four hours earlier than that she'd never gotten readings at greater than seventy or eighty feet. That was when the words got too small to see for her. It was kind of clear that her ability was better than she'd thought. It still wasn't eye beams, or super speed, but you worked with what you had.

  "Can you get Impulse to go back? I think she had the van..." There was, and it kind of freaked her out as she watched it, a video feed in the corner of the screen for the girl. Her eyes locked on it, and after a bit she understood that she was staring at what the kid was looking at. She even got it when she stopped and talked on her phone. There was no audio, but she got a transcript. Not that she was looking at the words, the moving pictures being too big of a shock.

  It was a person at the base speaking to her, with Brian telling Marcia, the boss, what was needed. It made for a strange time delay, but after a few minutes the girl had the van in her sights.

  "There. The one with the pushed in front right hand side. The cream colored thing?"

  She got the response from Bridget first, the words got it popping up as she closed with the thing. For a bit she wondered if there was a chance she was wrong, and that it was some other vehicle, but luckily they started shooting. That was kind of a big give away. Especially when the back opened up, and a man with a green tube pointed it at her.

  Cindy didn't know what it was, but Impulse did, and closed anyway.

  "Um, an RPG? Out of the van? I can't get the other car." What she did see was the explosion. That knocked the girl from her feet, sending her flying through the air.

  The captions under the spinning vision said, "Wheee!"

  That probably meant she was all right. The words didn't seem that concerned or anything, but her phone was destroyed. Cindy got that from the screaming that came over Brian's cell.

  Cindy called back, not knowing if she'd be heard or not.

  "She's good! Her cell didn't make it, but she's back on her feet. Um... The van is out of sight though. I think... She doesn't seem to know which way to look, and is going to try running a grid?"

  That got more yelling, but it was just stern, not half panicked seeming. Brian shoved the phone against the side of her head without asking then. It actually slapped against her cheek, causing a bit of pain.

  "Ow. Watch it." She took the thing anyway, which was small and black, still staring at what Bridget was looking at.

  The woman that spoke in her ear sounded concerned, and her voice held a commanding tone, which almost instantly pissed Cin off. Worse, from her picture the woman was prettier than she was. That had to make Marcia Turner a bitch. Even if it hadn't been the case, her tone was enough to make that certain. She was stressed, it was clear, but yelling at Cindy wasn't going to help.

  "What's happening? Tell me!" There was no commanding now, so she took a breath and refrained from telling her to fuck off.

  "She's running up and down streets looking. So far I don't have a visual on the van. It was some kind of green tube thing that hit her. She tried to get close to it, but didn't make it, so it exploded? She needs new clothes..." It was a funny thing for her to be thinking, as she used superpowers to try and find dangerous people, but it was there.

  About ten seconds later she could see herself, sitting next to Brian in the alley they were hidden in.


  Proxy growled.

  "Damn. She's here. That's almost certainly the wrong direction. We lost them."

  That seemed likely, so she waved to the rapid blur, which stopped in front of them. She wasn't totally naked, some threads of what she'd been wearing still clinging to her very slender body. There was black charring over everything except her hair, which was short enough that it didn't even seem mussed.

  The distraction of seeing her got the moving images to cut suddenly, and the words moved over the girl's head, snapping into place. She walked toward the car, breathing hard.

  Turner, the bitch, was screaming at her to explain the sit-rep. Over and over.

  "Shut up and let me find out for you?" Cindy climbed out of the car, and held the cell phone out, but Bridget's text said that she couldn't speak clearly yet. "Fine, I'll do it for you. She lost visual on them. On the good side she does have the plate number." That was given, with her taking it from above Bridget's head, carefully.

  "I'm running that now. Wren, can you take over? We have... Sorry, didn't get your name?" The voice was a bit suspicious sounding, like Cindy was a bad guy, trying to sneak into things to get information.

  Since that was right she smiled. It was fake, but no one noticed.

  "Cindy. I'm a local. Out on a date with Brian? We were just going to pick up some dessert and head back to my place for the night. That's ruined now. Here, he wants to talk to you?" He had his hand out, and was smiling anyway.

  It wasn't a happy thing.

  "Marsh?" The woman wasn't there anymore however it seemed, another person taking over.

  Brian spoke, and a few seconds later his words flashed. Telling her that six people were incoming to the area. The group that appeared in front of the car made her jump, and yelp a little bit. Without waiting they scattered, off to look for the van, she guessed.

  That left only one person. He was an elf.

  At least he has an all leather outfit, cat slit eyes, and what seemed to be a cittern in his hands. He was also about four feet tall. The man moved in next to Bridget, and gently put a hand out.

  "Are you well, m'lady?"

  The girl smiled at him, and gestured at her clothing.