Infected 8: Impulse: A Whole New Day Read online

  Things like that did happen. Almost never on a level that required an evacuation, but standing there, seeing the fear on the faces of the people that were trying to save everyone, she could see how they might think that way. Infected people were scary, at times. Now that the war had started, it was just going to get worse, too.

  It was tempting to wait for the police Chief to get there, and kill him, personally. He'd been attacking her people for a long time. This was working better though, she thought, than her original idea would have. It was a bit by the seat of her pants, but the idea of letting a made-up Anti-Infected group take the credit for the blast seemed like it would work better than her, an IPB Operative, being seen in town fighting the police. That one screamed distraction. Going this new way was far more realistic seeming.

  Somberly, she raised the bag in her right hand, the green thing showing the black symbols that Denis had put there for her.

  "We are the Totally Clean Christians! We will not let our kind suffer the Infected, anymore! Do not suffer a witch to live!" She practically chanted that for a while, not giving a proper name for the organization. Almost all of the hate groups called themselves something like that, and used the TCC logo that she had on her bag. About half at least. It was enough that people, looking wide eyed and scared, just nodded when they heard her. It made sense, to almost everyone. Then, slowly, over the course of an hour or two, people started to repeat what she was saying.

  If it had been a real nuclear device, everyone in the town would be dead, she figured. Or at least getting sick. There wouldn't be radiation from this, but a panicked group of people fleeing the area worked pretty well as cover for that lack. The funny thing there was that no one even tried to stop her, when she left. At first she planned to simply walk out of town, but one of the thugs in blue pointed at a white bus with black letters on the side, sitting about fifty feet from the front of the police station.

  "That's the last one. If you don't have a car, get on it. Now!" The order was a bit too stern for someone that was supposed to be trying to help her. He was also fingering his gun, though it still sat in its holster. Ready to shoot, if she didn't comply with his demands? She nearly just started fighting then, because ultimately she was herself, but nodded stiffly and got on the bus, which was about half filled with people from the area. Including two people that she recognized.

  It was a shock, since they should have been taken out already, along with all her people. Unless no one had let them in on the plan? That... Was possible. They were just kids. Strange ones too, that might let something slip without realizing it.

  The Elcampayns, Deidre and Edmund, both sat next to each other, their brown eyes looking scared, and determined, at the same time. Both searched by looking out the windows, as did the five or so other kids that were with them.

  Since it was a school day, and they'd probably been headed that way when the evacuation started.

  That got Bridget to blink, and even if there was room elsewhere she slid in next to Deidre without asking if it was all right. The seat was a bit tight with the three of them pressed in, but the other two simply moved over, Ed not even complaining that he was being squished yet. In fact, they just used her being there as an excuse to whisper, almost directly into each other's ears.

  It was incredibly obvious, to her at least, since she could hear them both pretty easily. Most people couldn't and really, what they were saying wasn't really all that out of bounds, being similar to what the other kids were going on about, in the seats behind them. The adults mainly just seemed worried and tense. A few were crying, which suddenly made her feel like a heel, for scaring them like she was.

  Not that her people, her friends and family from the base, weren't more important to her than people she didn't know. These, in the main, were the very people that allowed her kind to be persecuted, day in and out. Oh, sure, they weren't all chanting for her to die, yet, but it had happened before. Probably with at least a few of these people being there to lead the chorus, she was willing to bet.

  Holding signs and rushing the fence of her home.

  What used to be her home. The base was gone now, along with all her worldly possessions, so that it would look right. From the look of that explosion, there would be nothing but a collapsed hole in the ground left to inform the world that anything had ever been there. Possibly a small crater too. It made her feel sad, losing it. She'd never really lived anywhere else. Not for long. It had been a constant in her life. A place that would always take her in, and give her shelter and friends. Now...

  It was a prop, being used to save her people. Her mother, and Clari. Burt the cook for Team Three, who was a bit grumpy as his first mode, but had about the lamest power ever. He could hear sounds about ten seconds before they happened. It wasn't all that useful, since it didn't give him enough of a warning or information to do anything, most of the time. So he was just distracted a lot and liked to work alone.

  There were hundreds of people like that at the base. Technically operatives, but not really, since they weren't powerful, like she was.

  If she had to give up her home, or even her life, to protect them, then it was merely what had to be done, wasn't it?

  Ed spoke then, glancing at her first, but not giving any indication that he recognized her. The two kids next to her were dressed casually, wearing jeans and t-shirts. Normal kid wear for the continent they were on. She was the one that stuck out, being in a dress like she was. She fit though, she thought. Normally she looked too young, being tiny and having a kid's face, but the makeup was hiding that, along with her identity.

  "Sister, we need to stay ready and wait for Mary to come and find us, as is the plan in case of being separated. I curse the foul luck that had us leaving before the dawn today. I think that perhaps you will not receive that extra credit for your class of history, after all."

  The girl, who was fifteen, looked at her younger brother, and nodded.

  "Agreed. We shall await Lady Mary. If there is no word for three days, then we are to seek out her mate, Advocate Yi. I must but hope that all are still living. That explosion was truly massive. I'd thought for a moment that a Wester device had gone off." There was a quick nod at Ed, then blushing, since it was pretty clear that Bridget had heard them and they weren't exactly using modern American English. They had a strange accent, that floated around, based on who they were talking too. With her, since she was a stranger, it would have been very formal, with thees and thous, at the moment. She was about to ask what the project for extra credit had been, when there was movement behind them.

  A dark skinned girl that wasn't a lot bigger than she really was propped a worried face over the black vinyl, and reached out to gently nudge Deidre on the shoulder.

  "Do you two have a ride? I... My dad is out of town for a few days. It's normally fine, but..." She seemed about to be in tears, so Edmund nodded at her, his face going slightly hard. He wasn't a complete tool, but he was from a place where things were often done very differently. An alternate reality, she knew. A different dimension that was similar to their own, but different in a lot of ways at the same time. Mary was from the same place, and so was Hobbs, her friend that was teaching her how to meditate. He was the best at it, making sure it never got too boring for her to handle.

  "We will not abandon you miss, rest assured. You are under our protection, as are all of our town. May I enquire as to your name?'

  The girl, who was a bit older than the boy that had been speaking didn't react to the strange words too much. She just nodded herself, clinging to what he'd said as if it meant anything. The thing there was that, once Ed gave his word like that, it probably did. No matter how inconvenient it was. Worse his sister was clearly agreeing with him.

  "Edmund, this is a classmate of mine, Charity Peetz. We have mathematics at the same time. Please don't worry, Charity, as Ed told you, we won't allow you, any of you, to come to harm."

  It was a bold promise, given that they weren't actually fig
hters, or particularly important in the world they sat in. She however was.

  "Right. For the moment it's best for us all to get out of town. That explosion... We need to get away from the radiation. I heard the Totally Clean Christians are taking credit for it? They blew up the IPB base. My cousins here, and I will look out for you, until things are settled a bit." That was going to be a pain, since she could probably get away with taking the Elcampayns away with her, but there was no way that stringing this girl and her friends behind them wouldn't be counted as kidnapping. Not once everything was found out.

  Unless Charity was Infected too and just able to hide it. That made sense, given everything. After all, Brian Yi was involved in the situation and everyone knew that his power could make things like that happen. At least amongst his friends. Coincidences that otherwise wouldn't make any rational or logical sense happened all the time when he was involved and she was, as strange as it still seemed, related to him. That could make the whole thing more real for her, right?

  The girl didn't move, but Ed glared at her for a long time, before she got why that was. She'd claimed they were her cousins. That, and announced that the IPB base, where their protector, Hobbs, lived had been utterly destroyed. Deidre looked almost panicked, though she did it quietly. It was just the kind of person she was. Weak, but nearly silent about it. Also able to produce masses of energy, which started to pour off of her, making Bridget's skin hum in response. It was becoming noticeable, and a few other people on the bus turned to stare at her just then, as Ed patted her back, trying to get her to calm down.

  The boy was only thirteen, but where he came from that meant he was a man. One responsible for Deidre, and now Charity, who was cringing back.

  A boy who was sitting behind them to the right, cursed, his voice low.

  "Fuck... Are you... Infected?" There was less condemnation in the words than Bridget would have expected normally. Everyone turned to him however and a few others started making some noise about it. Because, in the main, people were sheep.

  "Infected! Run!" This came from the front of the bus, a woman who needed to lay off the sweets and to take better care of her teeth turning to point, afraid of the slightly buzzing girl.

  Which was fair enough.

  "No, my sister and I aren't of that sort. We are merely from an alien world, and not this realm. Rest assured that-" A cell phone hit him above the hairline, making a solid thunk. No one else did anything for a moment, but several people stood, looking ready to die fighting the Infected menace in their midst.

  Charity ducked down before a barrage of things came in at them, and Ed tried rather valiantly to cover his sister with his own body. Since, clearly, that was his job. Being the man and all that.

  "Stop! This is stupid, she's a friend of mine from school." It was the boy that had started the problem, with his big mouth, who also got up and moved in front of Deidre, being pelted with several things for his trouble. He didn't back off however, which was pretty brave of him. Mobs had been known to kill Infected people, after all. Those that tried to help them, too. That wouldn't be happening here, but there was no way for the boy to know that. That meant he was pretty brave.

  Bridget moved to her feet, doing it slowly and trying not to twitch too much, since it was part of her act. She was a high energy person by nature, and the desire to respond to the attack was so powerful it nearly overwhelmed her for a moment, but she held on to her goal, and pulled Deidre by the arm hard enough to get her to stand.

  "Come on. This way. We need to get out of here." She was ready to fight, if she had too, but the boy with the loud mouth, his blond hair slightly askew, moved in front of her.

  He was decent sized, once on his feet. About six-three and built like a linebacker. She thought that was the phrase. She'd never really gotten into sports, herself. It had seemed a bit boring, knowing that she could do better than anyone allowed to play, with just a bit of practice. He cleared the aisle for them, actually pushing a few men that tried to stop them. Because keeping the Infected people on the bus was clearly the smart thing to do? It was a hectic mess for a bit, since things like that always were, and she kept losing her balance, not being used to walking on stilts with people pushing on her. In the end it was Charity that had to hold her up, until they were out of the contraption. People called after them, using some pretty vile turns of phrase, so they ran. The boy did it first, being smarter than Ed it seemed, who wanted to turn and fight them. Now that he had a little room.

  No one tried to follow them. Stop them, either. Even the police just hid themselves, not pointing any weapons their way.

  She did better then, easily keeping up with the others, even hobbled by her footwear like she was. Of course in tennis shoes she could run at better than a hundred miles an hour for a long time. Really, that was a lie. It made it sound like she was slow, and couldn't outrun a race car, which she could do without too much trouble. Even thumping along awkwardly she could have left these people in her dust. That wasn't the point however, so she floated toward the back a bit, pretending to be having trouble. It was well enough that she did, since just as they were rounding the ice cream shop across the street from the park, one of the cops started shooting. A soft pat hit her on the back, making a hole in her clothing, she didn't doubt. Her body rocked forward, because... stilts.

  Charity screamed. It wasn't loud, but she got what the hole meant, or thought she did, and pulled Bridget to the side, using the building itself as cover. That was pretty close to what she should have done, if Bridget had been a regular person. It beat having her just stand there, making a target out of herself.

  "God, she's hit. You're shot! I know first aid. I..." She was looking for blood, which was a good thing to do, once they were out of range. Not needed for her, personally, but for the others.

  "I'm good. Don't worry about it. Let's go." The others had stopped and Ed tried to move to the back, to shield them himself.

  Because that would work. He might be an alien, like he'd said, but he was basically a regular person, other than being a power generating plant. His power, the one that he shared with his sister, was barely noticeable to most people here. Unless they freaked out like Deidre had, they could pass for normal. In their reality, where people knew how to use that energy, the entire world worked off of it. These two could have powered continents for decades, all alone. In fact, avoiding that was why they were there. The way that was done wasn't very nice, currently. It basically involved chopping them up into little pieces. Ed first, while they put Deidre out to have baby after baby, to build the number of their kind back up. They'd been nearly wiped out, thanks to politics.

  So, doing that kind of showed that Ed wasn't a physical coward, even if he was just made of flesh and bone.

  It just didn't help them with flying bits of lead.

  "Ed, take the lead. I'll hang back here, since..." She paused, not knowing how to explain things as they ran. Finally she just shrugged, which looked like a twitch or would have if anyone had been watching. "It's me, Bridget. I'm in disguise. You two weren't supposed to be out and about this morning."

  They headed toward the tree line, the one that was between the downtown area and the main portion of housing for the town. She'd been in it before, having used it to sneak around a few times, for fun. It was fairly new growth and a little over planted, but great for getting from one place to another without being noticed. No one spoke until they were inside it, and as Bridget turned, she noticed that the bus they'd been on was driving away, taking all their potential attackers with them.

  Finally, gasping for breath, Ed moved closer to her.

  "I... Um, my Lady Bridget?" There was more than a little skepticism in the words. Deidre looked at her too, seeming just as unbelieving.

  "Right. In disguise. Oh, um, I guess I don't need it now. Here..."

  She pulled her wig off, showing her short rust colored hair. Then she pulled the facial bits off, and struggled quickly out of her fat suit. It took abou
t ten seconds, thanks to her natural speed, which had everyone staring at her, as she ended up in her underwear, pale, decently skinny, limbs showing. She had a bra on, which was more of a courtesy than anything else, since she didn't need it yet. Not mainly. She was starting to finally fill out that way a bit, so it wasn't a totally useless idea. At least if boys were going to be checking out her rack like the two with them suddenly were.

  It was flattering, after a fashion, but really she didn't get it. Shouldn't they have been more worried about the bombs? The shooting and all that? She had a change of clothes with her, at the bottom of her bag, a t-shirt and jeans, with running shoes, so dressed, as Ed and Deidre at least, caught up mentally.

  The girl went first, smiling.

  "Lady Bridget! We didn't recognize you at all. Is all well? We were not told to expect, anything, if truth be told. I enlisted my brother to aid me in taking my project to the school, since it was over large to carry alone. Along the way we dropped it, choosing to flee the explosion, rather than worry over marks." It was hard to tell, but it seemed like the girl felt bad about that. Leaving her school project behind, merely to ensure her own survival.

  Bridget had never gone to a real school, herself, but she kind of thought that no one would mind all that much. Would the teachers hold her responsible for things like attacks and possible mayhem? Well, now they might, since, true or not, she'd been publically outted as Infected. She was even shy enough that a lot of people could think that was her first mode, if they wanted to force the issue.

  "You were supposed to..." She stopped, considering things, instead of just blurting them out, like she wanted to. It was really worse than that, and for a half minute, she felt like she had to do it. To take action, simply because the idea had come up. To make it harder for her, Ed started trying to ask questions.