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

by Power, P. S.

  The man next to her, who badly needed a shave, his red rimmed and bloodshot eyes trying to close on their own, nodded. It was a slow thing. One that showed that he was nearly as far gone as a person could be, without just falling down.

  "Rockton isn't that big though, and only has two stores. We were wondering if you'd go in with us, and identify the right place? Then..." It was his turn to yawn, but she got the idea on her own.

  They went in, found the right person that did the deliveries, and got the location that way. Then an invasion team could be sent to free the people being kept.

  It wasn't like they weren't going to have the might of the entire government behind them. After all, one of the people was, as far as either she, Brie, or Christian Pours could tell, the President's wife. Mary Lawrence. His dead wife. She'd been drugged for so long that her mind was more than a little bit gone, and it could all be a trick, which everyone already knew. That being the case, it had been a hard call as to if they should inform the man about it or not.

  Director Turner was inclined not to, until they had the woman safely back. Brian Yi had called it in to the man directly in the first ten minutes that he'd known about it. After all, he'd watched her die, himself, and was friends with the man, on a personal level. Like, he got invited to the family barbeques and all that. Even the unofficial things, for some reason.

  So there was a bit of pressure on about the whole thing.

  Cin looked at him, her eyes dead, getting what it was he really wanted from her. It was just a trip into the field, and should be safe enough really, as long as they had a guard detail for her. At first she figured that it was all about keeping her from escaping, or killing another innocent victim. It wasn't that however. He was just used to all the telepaths and psychics insisting that they weren't needed in the field really. Most of them never left the base, so he expected her to do the same. Like a wimp.

  She shook her head.

  "We need drugs then. Something to keep us awake. I need a gun, too." Then she stopped and shrugged. "Also for Darryl Lancaster not to be there with us. On the good side, as long as I'm fixated on him, I shouldn't go after anyone else, but..." She spread her hands. "I really, really want to kill him. So much I can taste it. Other than that, I can do this. Is he going to be all right with that? I know he was told, but he probably can't see me as a real threat." Mainly due to the fact that she just wasn't to him. If she tried for him, she died.

  That didn't mean he wouldn't be distracting to her.

  Proxy gave her a tired, but dead eyed glare, then let it soften.

  "He knows the score there, and is going to be four states away. You're actually willing to go in?"

  She smiled, and let herself feel a bit smug, then nodded.

  "Yep. I'm in. I wasn't kidding about those drugs though. That, or twelve hours sleep first. It's still early in the day though, so..."

  The man waved at her, and started jogging, toward the medical center. Once inside he didn't wait for the desk nurse to log them in or anything.

  "Burrows, or Klein. We need uppers of some kind. It's mission relevant." That was enough to get the man, her arm carrying friend, to run off, coming back with another man in blue scrubs a few minutes later. He had tablets for them, and shook his head, on seeing them.

  "Take these. One pill every six hours. You have eight of them. If you need more than that, then... Well, you'll probably be dead by then. Don't double up on them. Both of you are small enough that each one of these is a risk to your health. I'd recommend sleep instead." It was mission critical however that they get things done then, so Cindy popped the top of her little two day supply and took one without water. It wasn't her favorite way of doing things, but would work.

  Brian did the same, then tucked his bottle into his pocket.

  "I know. This is either huge, or it's nothing much at all. Just like always. We'll try not to die of heart failure." He wouldn't, being in really good shape, but the doctor didn't know about her that way. Though when she checked, she decided that it would be fine. The man was being a worry wart, more than anything else. She was in shape, the drug was just speed. Harsh on the system, but manageable for a few days.

  It wasn't even addictive. Not physically.

  She was in running gear, and still damp, so waved toward the door of the place.

  "I need a shower and fresh clothing. Plus weapons. Knives and guns, in case I get to kill someone." She was about to explain that the only person she really wanted dead was Darryl, so the rest of the world would be mainly safe, unless they got in her way, but Yi nodded at her without hesitation.

  "We shouldn't need that, but just in case. If we can find the facility, we're taking in everyone. I can get them there. There's no real need to do that yet. As odd as it seems, the safe people for this are actually the Infected, for once. As far as the lab people can tell, the mimic virus doesn't let people copy powers directly. Just appearance and skills. So if we take our own people, we'll know who we have with us. That means leaving the agents out, for the most part, unless you, Trivia, or Mind Reader check them out first." The drugs hadn't kicked in for him yet.

  Worse, he was still a bit hurt, having gone off to fight several times over the last week. Normally he would have been healed by Phoebe, but the traitor was off in a different city, having vanished already. That meant there was a spy on the base somewhere. It was Chris Pours job to find those, but it was harder than it sounded like really. The mimics were good at their jobs, if it wasn't just someone being really careful mentally, doing the work needed to not be caught.

  Well, unless it was Chris herself.

  If so, then they were screwed, since the woman would know if Cin tried to read her. On the good side they knew that she wasn't a copy of herself, her powers being fully intact. Blinking, walking in the bright, but cold sunlight, she nodded.

  "Hey, do you know that ghost girl? The one that lives with Christian?" That was a boy's name, to her mind at least, but for the life of her she couldn't care at the moment.

  Brian nodded.

  "Molesty the ghost? I do know her. She used to live in my head, actually. Why do you ask?"

  "So that we can rule out Chris as the spy. Then she can vouch for me, and so on." She stopped speaking then, getting the story of how Becky Young, the ghost, had literally molested Brian in his sleep. Probably more than once. That kind of thing had happened to him several times in his life, which didn't leave him feeling all that happy with women in general.

  That wasn't fair, since she hadn't done that to him yet, but she was still roughly lumped in with the others. Then, he didn't think of her as being too bad, even if it was kind of clear that she'd started out using him, and probably still wanted that. Which was the simple truth. That whole staying alive thing would be nice, if she could pull it off.

  He had a room there like everyone else, so ran off to shower himself, taking less time on it than she did, somehow. When he showed back up he had on normal clothing and a warm blue jacket. She was dressed to go to work, at the library, herself. As she slipped her coat on, the long warm one that she'd brought with her, he pulled out some goodies for her.

  A black nine millimeter, which she only knew how to use from his thoughts, and several large knives. Those she was more familiar with. Getting the shoulder holster on meant removing her coat, as she stood in the door to her room, and reading up on it all several times, getting instant corrections from the man in front of her, before he could speak. It made her seem nearly like she knew what she was doing.

  Then she hid the knives on her, and wondered about how they were going to get to Rockton. Plane came to mind, but she realized that Yi had a different plan totally.

  They jogged to the motor pool, and he grinned at the car, ready to explain the whole thing to her.

  "We'll need to drive around once we're there, and this is cheaper than renting. I'll teleport the whole thing. Buckle up, though?" He waited for her to ask questions, since people didn't generally know he had t
hat kind of ability yet. She did however. Taking him at his word, she got into the passenger's seat, and waited for the world to change around them.

  When it happened, with him sitting behind the wheel with his eyes closed, it was remarkably soft and gentle seeming. The world turned blue, and when she could see again they were in a bank parking lot.

  Grinning she smiled at him. The uppers were starting to work a bit, she realized.

  "So, we're vacationing in Fiji later this year? Good to know. I need to work on my tan."

  He laughed, even though it wasn't funny, and then shook his head.

  "Like we get vacations? Besides, we aren't going anywhere if the genetic treatment doesn't work on you. Do you know when you get that started?"

  She nodded, as the vehicle was started, pulling out onto the main street. It was clear they needed to go to the left, since that was the direction the main part of town was.

  "Earlier today. It will be a few months, if it works. If not..." Well, the plan was still to kill her if she couldn't be helped. Turner had flat out told her that, more than once. Even while knowing that it was beyond Cin's ability to control.

  Since Brian was probably the one that would have to kill her, he nodded. That he knew the whole plan was clear to him, inside his head. Which left him feeling a little sad. She really had done her part so far, and more. It would be hard for him to execute her like that, if it came to it. Not that he wouldn't do it. A small part of him also wondered if he should hold off on sleeping with her, since that was clearly a ploy on her part to prevent him from doing that.

  That he was so untrusting of her made her smile a bit and shake her head to clear it.

  "Is that the place? The first one?" It was a chain style building, but not a place she'd ever heard of. Groceries and other things seemed to be sold there, but after they parked and went in, it didn't take long to find out that the place didn't offer deliveries. The manager seemed annoyed with them too, as if asking was some kind of a big problem.

  Then his own story tattled on him. He wasn't lying about the lack of deliveries or anything, but he totally recognized Proxy, even out of uniform. Not in a warm and fuzzy way, either. As soon as they left he was planning on calling the police and claiming that they'd come in and threatened him. That way the cops would have to go after the man, and that would, at least in potential, lead to someone dying. It would at least be bad press for the IPB, and might end up with Proxy, the monster, being killed.

  Looking around Cin smiled at the man, who didn't recognize her as anyone in particular, and waved toward the back area. There was a break room that way. She picked it up from his head.

  "We need to talk, in private." The man followed along, feeling uneasy about the whole thing. Brian did too, but some part of him understood that there was a problem at least.

  Once in the back area, which was empty, she turned, locked the door, and pulled the gun from under her arm.

  "He's planning to make problems for us. Calling in the cops to hassle us, which we can't afford right now." She was thinking that a bit of judicious killing might be in order, but Brian just sighed and shook his head.

  Then he waved at the man.

  "Seriously? I know that this is pretty much the world's center of Infected hate, but... That's a bit last year, isn't it? The trend now is to just get along. Besides, I'm a government agent, and right now getting in my way might just cost lives. For real." He waited, not going for a weapon of his own. Cin knew that she still had the safety on, but didn't want to shoot there anyway. It would be too obvious and get the police out for real.

  So she put the weapon back under her arm, a little clumsily, having never done it before, and fastened it into place.

  Then the manager, who was pushing fifty, and had a pretty normal looking face that fit his job, sneered at them.

  "I don't owe you, or your kind, anything. You're all evil and it's my duty as an American to stop you by any means possible." He was ready to die for his skewed beliefs, which was interesting to note. It was written in yellow and white.

  The man was also incredibly scared that he was really about to die just then. Cindy loved that plan, herself, and was about to go for a knife when Brian shrugged, lifted his right hand, and vanished with the man. That left her alone, but not for long.

  Two minutes later he was back, smiling.

  "He's back at the base in the cell next to Lauren's. Under arrest for trying to impede us in our duty. We can get him out later, once we get back. Technically I sort of claimed he was a terrorist, so we don't even have to tell anyone about what happened."

  What they did do then was sneak out to their car, so that they could check the only other grocery store in the area. The people there did deliver, and Tony, the thirty odd year old man that did that work for them, when he wasn't stocking shelves or being a clerk, didn't even make them work for the data too hard.

  He stood off to the side, thinking for a bit, then nodded.

  "That has to be the Branson delivery. I never see anyone out there. The food gets placed in a shed. That's all. Enough for ten, maybe fifteen people every two weeks. There's nothing out there though. Just that shed, and an old barn. I just do the deliveries, and they always pay, so I never really thought about it too much." Except that he had, and figured it was some kind of cult thing.

  Possibly with girls being kept in underground pens for sex. The man had a good imagination on him, but no proof, so he hadn't mentioned it to anyone. Which was the right thing to do, in general, since no one would have ever believed him anyway. Not until that moment.

  Cindy nodded, and patted the man, who was a little heavy set, on the arm.

  "Good work. If it turns out to be anything, we'll make sure you get a commendation. If not, well, no harm done." The man gave them pretty exacting directions, even though she could use his mind to draw a map for her anyway. He was kind of pleased with the idea that he might be helping people. That meant he was a hero after all.

  They did head out to the location, with Brian stopping the vehicle a good mile away, so they could walk in, in case of cameras or traps.

  There didn't seem to be anything like that however, and sure enough, as soon as they had a visual on the place, and she focused enough, she was able to see floating text inside the ground. Including some familiar people to her. Others as well.

  She waved at it, not certain how to really explain it all.

  "Fuck. Okay, there are at least fifteen people here. Most of them not moving. It looks like there are five of them that are employees, or whatever you want to call them. There seem to be different sections. Like, the people in them don't really know that the others are there?" She focused for a bit, and found the man that did the food. He knew, since it was his job to portion things out for everyone.

  It wasn't until she bothered to get the floor plan from him that it hit her who it was. She checked, then did it several more times, since she didn't want to be wrong about it.

  "Um... Brian? I can draw a map, but... The man in charge here? I..." She shook her head then. It wasn't like they were friends, or that she hadn't heard of any other supposedly dead people being around. "It's Wally's brother. Clark?" She was about to clarify even more when Brian looked at her sharply.

  "You're certain of that?"

  She really was. Holding up her right hand, she delved into the nervous man's tale again, making sure it was really him, and not a mimic.

  "Yeeesss. It's him, not a copy. He isn't a prisoner or anything. Not that he knows any more than the others really. Where all the doors are, and the lock codes, but that's about it. I'll do up that map." It didn't take too long for her to draw out, and she did it sitting there, while Proxy went and got some of their friends.

  That she had those was a little odd, but she kind of did, she realized. Bridget was there, as well as Scott, her father. For some reason Lauren was too, even if she was still supposed to be sitting in a cell, being punished. Kerry and Denis were in the back, near Mark Steinber
g from the cooking show, who was standing next to Tobin Peterson, the singer.

  It was an odd group, but she understood it after a moment. These people were all ones that could be trusted totally. Either too powerful for anyone to fake their abilities, or too distinctive, like Tobin was. She waved at them all, her face hitched up into a small smile. It wasn't real, but then it was clear that Brian hadn't told them all about the mission yet. She help up the hand drawn map, and started speaking, getting that Brian didn't really want to, at the moment. He would have, but the whole thing was actually going to be a lot simpler for her to pull off, not really caring about it all.

  "This is an underground facility, where people that have been copied are being kept. Alive, but drugged. Agent Burkes is down there, along with Mary Lawrence." She stopped as that one sunk in. It was unexpected enough that Bridget actually jumped, her eyes going wide.

  The tiny redhead smiled though.

  "She's dead! You're saying she really isn't?"

  Cindy nodded, "that seems to be the case. The people working here are pretty much just people hired for the job. Illegal workers from Mexico mainly. We probably want to go easy on them, since they were paid a lot and then put here with no way out. Except the man in charge. He came in knowing about the whole thing, more or less." She paused then and shrugged. It was hard to know how that one would go over, and while she could have run it past people, in their stories, she just jumped in. "Clark Clarkson. Wallace Clarkson's brother. He's not really in on things either, but it would be best to take them all alive. I don't think they'll fight much, but if they get scared..."