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

by Power, P. S.

  So Cin answered Burrows to reassure them all.

  "Nope. I only like a certain kind of man for that. Apparently ones that look like my third grade teacher... Who was apparently a good guy. I never liked him, but I guess that was my problem and not him. Everyone else is reasonably safe. Plus, if I get out of hand, Sara here will slap me around until I behave. There's no way I can take her in a fight. Not even armed. I don't have a physical power."

  The doctor didn't seem to care that much about her abilities, waving for them to follow along to the back for samples. Rachel came in the front as they started to move, which got her waved along, as if she were part of the group. They looked short and red, as a group, over all. She was a blonde, but Hobbs wasn't, and Rachel was only as tall as she was, with Bridget being the short one. Burrows was nearly five-two, so looked like the big one there, except for Sara, who kind of stood out.

  The older Chambers looked at them all, not getting it yet. Still, she came along, trusting that whatever the news was would be good. Or not. It still wasn't the tedious meeting.

  Cin was half pushed up on a padded paper covered bed thing, the blue paper under her butt making the whole thing weird. Then, without warning or notice she was stabbed three times and swabs were taken from her cheek. Burrows kind of wanted to get other ones from her, but they really weren't needed. She just liked to be thorough. It didn't take too long, but there was a payment due. From the doctor, and that would be in candy. The good kind.

  When she left to go find some, Cin waved at Sara.

  "Rachel, this is Sara. She needs a mom. A real one that will stay with her. Right now people are ignoring her, which is bullshit. After careful consideration your name came up for the job. You don't have to do it, but you're the best one for the position." It was mean doing that in front of the girl, who expected the tiny pretty lady to reject her, but she didn't know the character of Rachel yet.

  The woman beamed at Sara.

  "That's a great idea! I'd love to do that. If you want, Sara? We can go get something to eat, and talk about it? I have to eat a lot."

  The girl nodded, her face not showing her real emotions.

  "Me'sh toos. I'sh eatsh a lot."

  The rough amount flashed on her page, written clearly, but in crayon. After reading for a bit, Cindy shrugged.

  "Well, in this form she does. She can also change into a little girl at will. Possibly some other forms, once she learns how. She just doesn't feel like it right now, which I'm cool with. For one thing, she doesn't have the right clothes yet. Plus, green is a great color. So I can see that one, personally." The idea was just to let Rachel know the score, not make trouble for Sara. She was about to keep going, but the woman nodded, since more wasn't really needed.

  "We can get you some? That way if you want to trade back and forth you can do it. This is a good look for you too, if you're on the base. It will make it easier to stay in training, I bet. Unless you're this strong in your other form?"

  That got a big, kind of slow head shake.

  "No's, ma'am. Nosh really"

  Bridget clapped. It was a happy thing, and ended with a hug, first for Sara, and then for Rachel.

  "Perfect! I should have thought of this myself. Rachel is my grandma, and the best parent ever! That makes you my aunt, I guess? Good, you can get me a pony for Christmas. It doesn't have to be big." She was joking, but Sara seemed to think that it might be real. She didn't know, and ponies didn't grow on trees, so it was actually worrying her for a moment.

  Cin snorted, and then smiled.

  "Don't let her fool you Sara, it's her job to get you a pony, not the other way around. Not that you should get one of those here. That wouldn't be fair to the horse. You should try for a dog though."

  That got Bridget to hug the girl again, nodding.

  "That's true all the way around. Now, I need to get Cindy someplace to stay. I meant to be doing that now, but I'm glad I didn't miss this. We can stuff her in my room tonight if we have to." There was a sly look at her, but it was more kidding around.

  Cindy just nodded.

  "That's fine. I don't need all that much as far as things like that go." The doctor came back in, with candy for everyone there. Hobbs looked at the thing, knowing what it was, but wondering what he was supposed to do with his, not wanting to eat it. The problem was that it was either a gift, or a tribute, both of which could mean different things. The problem there was that he didn't know which would be the case given the circumstance.

  Either thing meant he must take the candy, of course, but doing so could be either a pledge to protect Burrows in combat, or might mean he was expected to return the favor at some point. Getting that wrong could give offense. In his world that might require lethal battle over any slight perceived. Here it would be softer, and not as harshly settled, perhaps, but even these folk could take offense, and did at some very different things than he would have ever understood. Including the meaning of words.

  Cindy just handed her candy to Sara, who took the small yellow hard candy with a head bob.

  "Thanksh yoush."

  Seeing that, feeling very uncertain, Hobbs did the same, getting a similar result. Everyone else smiled about it too.

  Then she turned to Burrows, who had things to say to her.

  "I should have this all mapped out in two days. Then it will take another four to work up the needed compound. I can explain it all, but the short version is this; we might be killing you, but probably aren't. There are dangers, because we're altering your innate being. If it takes, then your first mode will be gone. That might, or might not change your behavior. I can't tell you how that will play out. My guess here is that the drive to kill will go away. At least the part where you can't control it. From the time we start the treatment, to when the thing takes, seems to require about three months for the full effects to come into play."

  Cin nodded. After the first shots, or whatever would be coming, then her days were numbered. The countdown on her fun times would be running down. On the other hand, there was no way she was going three months without killing someone. That was just way too long by far. She might, possibly, make it two and a half months, but that was all she'd ever done before, and it had been so hard.

  For the moment she was fine, and needed a room, so decided to get that done if she could, not wanting to see what sleeping inside Bridget's closet would really be like.

  Rachel patted Sara on the arm, still looking at her, not concerned with the other things going on.

  "Food? We should all go?"

  Hobbs wasn't hungry yet, even if it wasn't that late. It wasn't lunch time or anything, so he kind of wanted to get some training in, even if it had to happen while they guarded the new compound with the gate patrol. They had people on the duty already, but they'd need to be checked out. It was a thing that their new person could do however, so that portion was handy.

  He spoke, his voice low.

  "Nay, as for me. We need to see toward protecting the base, as is our charge. Lady Bridget, needs you to have victuals?"

  The girl nodded, then made a face.

  "Yes, but I can go drink a gallon of oil, which will be faster. I'll run do that, and set up a room with the head office. Hobbs, can you and Cin start on that? I'll send out Tobin and Den if we can find them..." She just took off, so they all did, with Burrows taking her arm gently before she got out of the room.

  Leaning in the woman spoke, close to her face.

  "You're good with this?"

  So far the treatments had all worked, more or less, but trying it on a female was different. Probably not that much so, but she couldn't promise it wouldn't be lethal, or cause her to grow antlers. Worse, it could make her power go away and leave her with her the emotional problems, or make those ten times worse.

  It probably wouldn't.

  Cindy shrugged.

  "I really don't get a choice, do I? Either you do this and it works, or I end up dead. It's kind of simple. No matter how dangerous, I k
ind of have to take any chance I can get right now. So load me up. I can either take it, or not." The words were a little cold sounding, so she faked a smile, which Burrows got instantly. She was too good at face reading not to.

  There was a cool nod in return, but the arm was let go. It was all sorts of unethical for the doctor to allow it to happen, but she had a test subject that only she could really save, for once. The others had problems, but this one, she had the sword of Damocles hanging directly over her head. There was only one way for her to get out this, and that was for Kiko Burrows to save her.

  Nothing else would do. Not that she loved the idea of needing anyone else to bail her out.

  Cin was kind of ready to wander around aimlessly, begging for a bit, but Bridget was actually on the ball and simply called in the instructions as to where Cindy was going to be staying. She was standing outside the clinic hospital thinking about it as soon as Cin got outside, though the others were all suddenly gone. Hobbs was off actually working, and Rachel had taken Sara off to get acquainted, and to eat food, which was a thing they both seemed to like. It really couldn't hurt for them to get off on the right foot, or whatever.

  Past the idea that it helped her seem like she had a soul, which wasn't the truth, Cin didn't much care about the whole thing. It needed to work, but it more or less would. The girl wanted someone to be there for her so badly that she would have taken almost any line tossed to her. Rachel, for her part, was a good person, and not a horrible parent. It could fail, but that would take years, since teen Sara might well be a handful, after her poor early life.

  Which wasn't Cin's problem in the slightest.

  Bridget had all the luggage, but was kind of desperate for food already. Her plan was to simply suck it up and get Cindy settled first, before seeing to herself. That would let them drop the bags, and go get something a good bit more real to eat than oil, which she kind of hated. Not that anyone would bother the kid over doing that. Cin didn't want to drink a gallon of oil either, so she could understand that one.

  That meant they nearly ran to the apartments, which weren't that really. The rooms were, according to the tale being spun over the girl's head as they moved, just as small as promised, being just a little over the dimensions of a standard prison cell. Inside the things were a bit nicer however, being based on military officer quarters for single people.

  The other places, the ones for the IPB agents and the people who just worked at the base, were bigger and nicer than what the Infected got. It sounded like a nice bit of bigotry, but it was all about economics, not hate. They were getting new buildings for everyone, but it would be a few years for anything to really come together that way. This current design was mainly the way it was because the government had the plans, just sitting around. That meant they didn't have to pay for an architect.

  All of that flowed across the hungry girl's pages, as well as a worry that the door pad wouldn't have been reset yet. They dashed up three flights of stairs, since the place didn't have anything as fancy as an elevator. Once there they headed to rooms ten and twelve, which were side by side. Twelve was her room, it seemed, which she needed to use first, putting her index finger on the little glowing green pad.

  She did it, which got the door to click open.

  She glanced over at Bridget, who was about to start into a spiel about how the whole thing worked, and that, in the event of a power outage, the whole building would be left unlocked. That was a problem if they were ever invaded and had to hide, but the honest truth was that no one cared what happened to them in that case. They, the Infected, were supposed to be out fighting if anything like that went wrong.

  Cin nodded.

  "So, if this coup thing goes through, just taking the power out, say at night, will leave everyone vulnerable? Brilliant." The inside of the room was very white. There was no bedding, just a mattress, and a pillow on an iron bed frame. It was heavy. Solid in case it had to hold a being many times her size. The mattress was thin too, being about four inches thick. There was a single chair, at a small, but new looking, wooden desk. On the good side she had a window, but on the bad the thing didn't seem to be able to open up without being broken.

  In short, she had a cell now. One that opened to her touch, but it wasn't what she'd left behind by even half. Bridget knew that, but her own cell, next door, was no nicer. Except that she had blankets. Those, it seemed, would be delivered, and set on the cot thing inside. Which meant that housekeeping had the ability to get into anything, at almost any time.

  She had four bags, of which Bridget was carrying three, so she dropped hers next to the desk, near the middle of the room. Then she grabbed the ones from the tiny girl.

  "This will be fine. We should go get you some lunch. I..." She was about to say that she hated the whole thing, and didn't want to be there, but she just didn't have that much of a choice.

  Cin either played ball and survived it all, or she didn't. It occurred to her that whining about it wasn't going to win anyone over to her side of things.

  In which case she'd die. Most likely. Even as she spoke, waiting, Bridget wondered if they were going to have a problem that would end with that taking place, right at that moment. Seeing that, reading it clearly, Cin faked a smile. Being polite, or seeming to, was a great way to protect yourself in general.

  "I don't really need to eat yet. I probably won't for a day or so. Should I get with Hobbs, or shadow you?"

  The kid smiled at her, warmly. The idea that her prisoner was working to get along thrilled her to no end. It was all way nicer than she'd feared, so far.

  "Come with me? I won't take too long. I need enough calories to keep going, that's all. Then we can find the boys and see about setting up a real watch for this place. The old one was better that way, but..." She stopped, and looked at Cindy hard, her face closing down, as words spilled out over her head. Almost on purpose.

  The story was a dark one, where the IPB was going to be destroyed, so they'd faked their deaths. It was kind of a known thing, but it had been the government they'd feared, not Braid and her friends. This new base, while it looked nice enough on the surface, was a punishment of sorts, for their not dying. It wasn't stated that way, of course. No, it was given to them as being about money and budget concerns, but Bridget had heard some things that indicated that Congress had a bone to pick with them.

  As a group.

  Not the Infected, since most of the bigots were either already out of politics, or were in hiding now. Pretending that concentration camps were no longer needed. No, they wanted to punish the IPB for what they'd done, since it has stolen away some of their power. Going through that part of things herself after a fashion, Cin kind of got the idea. No one loved that.

  Bridget left suddenly again, her desire for food growing by the moment. Normally it wasn't that bad, but she'd actually gotten fewer calories the day before than normal, which had to be made up for now.

  The dining hall reminded her a little bit of the one from college, on the outside. The building was more tan brick, and the whole place was clean, but when they got through the large glass doors the whole thing changed. There was what seemed like a nice restaurant off to the right, and regular tables on the left, like a high school cafeteria. It was all in one room, but the place was huge.

  There weren't that many people there, but one of them, sitting on the plain side of things, was a large woman with a heavy brow ridge. She had to be vast, since she was about as large sitting down as Cin was standing. There was a lot of obvious muscle to her, like a lean power lifter might have. Only her decently large breasts made up for the whole thing, leaving her blocky seeming, but definitely female.

  Bridget saw her and waved, making big movements to catch attention.

  "Olga!" She wanted to run over, since the woman was her friend, but the need for food got her to move to the other side.

  Cindy however nodded, getting that they were going to be sitting with the large woman.

  "I'll grab a
chair before this place fills up? Or bench space." She was trying to joke about how empty it was, but Bridget seemed to think that it was a real enough thing. They were early, but there really would be people soon.

  The red head nodded, smiling and looking over at the food line.

  "Cool. Introduce yourself to Olga. She's second in command for Team Two. So networking and all that? You're Team Three, if anyone asks about it. That will tell people a lot about you, so keep that in mind." There was more fidgeting, which was kind of agitated and hinted at wanting to run toward the energy she desired.

  "Got it. Go. I'll be fine." That the kid, who was a lot older than she looked, was trying to stay with her, in order to do her job well, was just plain.

  When she got to the giant, who looked like a Neanderthal, if one bigger than the books would have ever shown, she smiled. The words over the woman's head were clear and neatly typed looking. Like an old fashioned typewriter had done the work.

  "Hi! I'm Cindy? The new kid, I guess. Can I sit with you?"

  The lady blushed, looked down as if embarrassed, which she was a bit, and then nodded. The story above her was fascinating though. For one thing, she was from the Soviet Union. The old one that had fallen. Her English had improved over the last months of constant study, but the tiny, very pretty woman, which is how she thought of Cin, left her feeling ugly. Worse, she expected to be judged over it.

  "Yes. Please. Sit?" The vocabulary was a bit basic, and accented, but very understandable. "You are not having food? You come with tiny Bridget?"

  That got a nod, as she settled on the hard white bench, kicking a leg over and sliding her butt a little, trying to get comfortable. Olga actually wanted to know if Bridget was getting her food for her, but didn't want to imply that the girl was her servant, instead of comrade.