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

by Power, P. S.

  Worse, everyone agreed that not telling everyone all about what she was doing was the right plan. That kind of made sense, because pissing off people with powers couldn't end well all the time. That meant she was being led around by Bridget, who was introducing her to everyone, one person at a time.

  Not that the announcement on television wasn't a known thing. They weren't all stupid or anything, so they knew about the coup, and how they were all about to have their lives smeared across the news. Not one of them thought that it wasn't going to happen either, so no one was all that shocked when, at about three in the afternoon, the news broke. It was all over the place, and told tales about a whole lot of the IPB. Things that a lot of them really wouldn't have loved to have known.

  Even the ones that no one knew about were being smeared.

  She, luckily, was pretty safe that way, being too new to have records of her wrong doings.

  So the stories all shifted on a dime, from being sort of interested to meet the new woman, into dark things that promised death and destruction on whoever was hurting them. That seemed fair to her, so while she and Bridget talked to people, they were both able to nod sympathetically while she read about who was in on it or not.

  She did, slowly, work out that seven of the people there were, indeed, part of the problem. Dr. Clinton was easy, but the person that had gotten him into the whole mess was much harder to find, since they'd never met. It had all been done over the phone, and as far as he knew, wasn't even a person that he'd ever met. Interestingly, the man was both ethical internally, and smart enough to work out that she was stripping him of his information, even with no more than a casual meeting. That was due to his reading her file, which Dr. Burrows had put together.

  Bridget was on top of it though, so when the man tried to stab at Cindy with a needle or something deadly, trying to stop her from breaking the plan, it didn't happen. Instead the gray haired man hit Impulse, who knocked him out with a single slap to the face.

  Cindy looked at the needle on the floor, and shook her head.

  "Now that wasn't nice of him, was it? His goal was to try and keep me from finding the others. The thing there is that he doesn't know who they might be. Just Kerry, since he was responsible for getting her into things. We should take him to..." Cindy realized that she didn't know that kind of thing, and older than the girl or not, it was the red head that was in charge, so she shut up and waved at him.

  They didn't really have police there, though they had guards, who were more than willing to grab the man up and toss him into a cell. From the mental description of it, the regular man wasn't going to be easily breaking out. The walls of the place were six inches of hardened steel. At the weak points. The two men in black that came were both ex-military special forces, and not in on anything in particular. Then, most of the people on the base wouldn't be.

  It was all about the same reason that she hadn't wanted to go there in the first place herself. There were too many fucking telepaths. How the doctor and Kerry had gotten away with it for so long, she didn't know, really. Only, given the mess of minds and stories on the base, she kind of had a clue.

  They only had three telepaths that were worth their salt in the IPB, and two of them actively resisted being around people. Especially their minds. Chris Pours was really strong that way, able to do about what Cindy could, it seemed. It was different for her, and a bit faster, at a guess, but the rough level wasn't too far off. The big difference was that Christian's first mode had her trying to stay away from people, since she found them annoying really fast.

  Lister, the military super soldier, Greg Lister, wasn't really all that great at being a telepath, when you got down to it. He could read surface level thoughts, and get some pictures from people's heads, but for him it was a bit muddled all the time. To fool him all a person had to do was not think about a given topic too clearly while he was around. Counting in your head worked pretty well. Day dreaming did it, too.

  The counter trick there was that the man had figured out what was going on, by reading Bridget as they moved around the base. Then he warned all of the other military men. Not because he knew they were in on this particular takeover attempt, but it was clear to him, and all the military guys and gals, that they were supposed to be. They'd been told to lay low, and get ready to spend years for the big event, but this could be what they were all briefed on.

  So for all they were walking all over the place, about a third of the people were virtually invisible. Cindy didn't really need to meet them however. Not after she was able to find the book that contained Greg Lester's notes. From there she worked out, even as Bridget took her around, to find that none of the special military officers were really in on anything in particular. They really were supposed to be getting ready for that kind of thing.

  That wasn't too hard for her to work out, and it was pretty clear that Turner suspected the same thing. Then, she suspected everyone that way. Including Cin, which was a bit insulting, since she was the one doing all the work at the moment. Worse, half the people were going to hate her when they understood who was ratting their fellows out to the man.

  It wasn't until they got to the rec facility that things sort of broke open for them however. The place was large, and designed for people to relax and have fun, more or less. Mainly, at the moment, that meant people were busily watching soap operas on a very big screen television. Her blue friend from earlier was there, but so were fifteen other people from Team Two. A few of them were even people that Cindy sort of recognized, once she thought about it.

  For instance, the large black and brown suit of armor was a figure that had been in the news over the years. Bug. Except, as she read the sad tale that came off of the being, Cindy learned a whole lot that she hadn't really understood. The manly looking, super strong and fast, creature was a woman. One trapped forever, locked into a cage of her own devising.

  Lauren.

  Life had always left her afraid, of almost everything, so she'd hidden away behind a wall of impenetrable shell in her thoughts. That had left her strong, inside, but when the Infection hit her, it had translated into what she was now. Worse, she knew that it had been her own weakness that had done it. Her first mode, loneliness, ripped from every word of each page.

  So it had made sense to her to go along with Agent Burkes, when the attractive, powerful, man had started to pay attention to her. The woman wasn't stupid, for instance she knew when she was being used, but she couldn't really help but be flattered by the attention.

  Cindy got part of what was going on there too. Her mind was so warped by her first mode that Chris Pours wouldn't touch her mind on purpose, leaving her thoughts pretty much her own.

  Smiling she touched Bridget on the arm.

  "Two of them? Lauren and Agent Burkes?" She murmured the words, softly enough that only one person there would be able to hear them.

  The girls eyes went wide, and she took a deep breath.

  "Fuck. Okay. Can you make sure of that? We need a second point of confirmation." The words were spoken out loud, and to the whole room at one time. Everyone turned to look at them, most of the people having worked out that something was going on involving the new lady.

  Bridget had a plan, if one that slapped together in her mind suddenly, and it was put into motion without hesitation.

  "Lauren, come with us. You're a traitor, and treason is kind of a big deal." The thing there, one that Cindy didn't have a lot of time to try and work out, was that the little red headed pixie-like being was planning to kill the large suit of armor, if she could.

  Why wasn't clear, since a fight started, complete with what sounded like explosions where they hit each other.

  David, the blue man, reached out as he scurried away, pulling Cin close to him as he tried to move. He couldn't get his mechanical voice to explain over the din, but she read the instructions, and started to move with him. He had a force field, and while it wasn't going to stop energy blasts, it might well prevent a bu
ilding from falling on them. Without asking, Cindy started to pull people in as they passed. They were used to working with him, and each other, so understood the idea instantly.

  Moving slowly, taking little steps, the powerful field stopped things from hitting them several times as about half of them worked toward the main doors. Just as they got there, the building's front was blown open, by a giant brown and black missile.

  That let things quiet down a lot, and everyone that had been inside, about twenty or thirty people, all ran out.

  The blue man took a deep, sharp breath and let it out, shaking. His voice really did sound like a computer when the words came. There were three of them too, like a group of people trying to say the same words at one time.

  "I... Don't know what's going on. I mean, Bridget and Lauren don't get along, but they don't do this."

  A bunch of people were coming at them all, running fast and hard. The first ones there were a slightly golden colored man that Cin didn't know yet, and Director Turner. They were followed by Proxy, who had a gun out, as if that was going to help, and a very nice looking, very muscular, tall white man.

  It was her turn to take a deep breath, since the man, Darryl Lancaster, was perfect. His hair was a bit too light, and he was a little too muscular, perhaps. Still he called to her on a level that few others had in her entire life.

  She wanted to kill him, so badly it hurt for a few seconds. Not that it was time for that. She'd have to wait. More to the point, as she read all about him, distracted from everything else, including the potentially lethal fight going on about a hundred meters away from them, Cindy realized that she wasn't going to be taking this particular target down.

  He was far too much for her. Infected, and powerful that way, but even without that he was too big, strong, and tough for her. Not that her desire to murder him didn't sting her mind anyway. She had to stop herself from staring, which went unnoticed, thankfully. There was a handy distraction at the moment, thank goodness.

  Turner came over to her, immediately, and slapped at her arm. It hurt, but wasn't meant too. She was just trying to get her attention, thinking that she was in shock from the sudden violence. Rather than lie about it, Cindy realized it was a good time to win the woman over with her honesty.

  "My first mode triggered. Darryl there. I want to kill him so bad. Um, anyway, Bridget and I found that Lauren is working with an Agent Burkes? As part of the coup thing. I didn't get a chance to find out what he knows, since this started right on top of me mentioning it. Uh..." She didn't know how to explain the rest of it, but a scared looking red haired woman who'd been watching television did.

  "Bridget said that Lauren was a traitor, and she attacked. Lauren did, I mean." The words weren't happy in the slightest, but they weren't hesitant either. It was clear from the print above her that this woman knew that it meant Lauren, her friend, was actually guilty.

  There was a nod from Turner, and a pointed finger. Then she looked around and waved at the television watching woman, and Tobin, who had come running up with Hobbs.

  "Goblin, LG, take them both down. We need Lauren alive. Lancaster, we need to find Burkes and whoever he's working with. For the time being you're in charge of the Agents' Section. Impulse is going to try and kill Level here, clearly, but that won't get us any information. Go!" She nearly screamed the last words, wondering if just rushing in and fighting with Bridget herself would work better.

  It made more sense to use the others however, if she didn't want people and her new base, to be damaged any more than it was. The woman, in her tan fatigues, wasn't really afraid for herself, even given the massive power being shown in front of them as the two powerhouses battled. They slammed each other into the ground, over and over. Both were fast, too. Lauren was harder to hurt it seemed, though it was hard to tell really, since Bridget recovered from everything so quickly. For her part the blows from the little girl were harder, and shook the world more. They landed more frequently too.

  That the large armored giant, who was at least nine feet tall, was still able to stand was amazing to Cindy. Impulse was about as powerful as anyone in the world, after all. Not that both of them didn't stop fighting a few seconds later, when the red headed soap opera watching fiend started to glow blue and shoot out what looked like a solid laser blast of similar colored light at the two people fighting. The thing there was that she could only really hit the bigger one. Bridget realized what was happening, before it took place, and dodged behind the giant, blocking the beam with her opponent's body. Then, grabbing a huge arm, she started pulling, and jumping up to kick at the shoulder joint at the same time, being careful not to get hit.

  With the large lady stunned, working so fast it was hard to tell what was going on, little Bridget tore off the armored right arm. Being stunned or not, Lauren screamed. Blood poured from the wound, as the girl backed away, smiling. Her eyes were dead, and staring as she panted hard, sucking in air rhythmically.

  It was Brian that called out, his voice raw.

  "Medic! Crap! Get someone..." Then he ran, striping off his tan heavy shirt, to use as a bandage. There was too much blood coming out. It didn't take a genius to understand what had been done.

  On purpose too.

  Bridget stood there, her story unfolding now that Cin had time to read all about it. Lauren, older than she was, and lonely, had been her best friend once. Then, a few years before, the woman had been influenced to think that Prime had been sexually abusing her. Everyone there had been pretty much, but the betrayal of her best friend, lying about her like that, and then trying to kill her dad, instead of believing her about the whole thing... It had been too much.

  That would be ended now. After all, the armor that protected Lauren was too strong to be gotten around easily, and there was no real way to even stop the blood from coming out at the destroyed joint. Or there was, but it would take a powerful healer to do it, and Phoebe, the one they had, was out of town, visiting her parents in Chicago.

  So everything had come together perfectly that way. In a few minutes, the woman would be dead. Finally.

  The main thing there was the blood, of course. Brian was trying to use his shirt, but the tearing had been too uneven, and bits of broken shell and armor were in the way, preventing a good seal. Everyone just stood there for a bit, thinking of what to do.

  That part was really strange, since it was kind of clear that several of them had good ideas about what was needed. They were all just too stunned to consciously think of ordering it done. Rolling her eyes a bit, Cindy sighed, and pointed at Dave. He should have already been working on it, understanding what he could do.

  The blue man looked at her, scared. Lauren was his friend, after all, as much as he had one there. A traitor too, it seemed. That could have him named one too, if he wasn't careful.

  "Use your field to stop the bleeding for now. Turner, call in Kerry, so she can repair the damage. Proxy, get out of the way in... Three, two..." They all did what she said, which was funny enough she nearly laughed.

  Lancaster, the big man she wanted to kill, looked at her and nodded.

  "I'm on Burkes then. I can't fucking believe it. Are you certain?" The words were angry, and more than a little bit tense, really.

  Cindy resisted rushing him, not having one of her knives, but it was hard to do, really.

  "No? I picked that up from Lauren only. I can check on him. Um... Can you leave? Fast?" It was clear the man didn't get her meaning, but he nodded, thinking that she was asking if he could get off the base, to hunt Burkes, right that moment for some reason. That worked well enough for her, for the time being, so she pretended to mean that, instead of asking him to get away before he had to burn her to a crisp.

  Thankfully he turned and ran off. Planning to get a car and actually vanish, right then, thinking it might be needed in order to stop the rogue Agents. His people. The bitter sting of betrayal ripped through him then, but he didn't hesitate. He'd known that it had to be at least some of them
the whole time. No one else could have gotten the information that was needed.

  Once he was gone there was a small measure of relief that came over her. Not that it wasn't going to get worse now that it had been triggered. That part was too bad, honestly. From that point on, until one of them was dead, she was going to be dreaming of killing Darryl Lancaster. He even seemed like a decent guy. Too bad he needed to stop being like that.

  Her blue staring pal, Dave, had moved in to the right distance and was physically keeping the red blood inside the armored form. Perfectly, allowing it to clot at the surface, and start to heal over a bit, or so it seemed. When Kerry got there, fresh from her room, where she'd been told to stay for the time being, she just looked at the whole thing for a bit, and then shrugged.

  "I can't reattach it, I don't think. I can close off the wound, but that's really all. I'm not a surgeon or anything." The story inside told all about that part of things.

  The woman was a very capable telekinetic. So much so that she could have fixed all the damage, even rebuilding the armor, if she'd known how to do it in the first place. The thing there was that she just didn't. Not on the level that it made sense to her right then. Her power was really impressive, but she didn't have the kind of understanding that would be needed to get it done in time. That would leave Lauren without an arm, however, since even if it might grow back otherwise, it wouldn't be able to, if the hole was filled in with chitinous armor.

  Worse, the construction of the body inside was different, it was clear. Just having a doctor there wouldn't have helped, since Lauren really wasn't human. That said, it was also clear from Kerry's internal story that there were about five ways for her to still get the arm fixed. She was kind of awesome that way, but high in self-doubt. On the good side, they didn't have to take care of that in the moment. Bridget knew that one. It was prescient, but solidly there anyway.