The Infected (Book 9): Proxy: War Day Read online

  Brian hadn't known that she'd been sleeping with anyone at all, much less Lancaster, but, he let that part go. There was a time when that would have really bothered him, but she'd made it clear she only liked him as a friend. Besides, he had Mary now, who was great.

  Penny kept talking, almost as if she couldn't help herself.

  "Brian first though? If he wants? I'm so embarrassed right now. What are you doing to me Denis? Making me relax... and tell the truth? I'd rather you didn't."

  The man nodded, smiling in a slightly assholish manner. It was a thing he was good at, having a long history of that kind of thing.

  "I worked the trick up just for you. Hobbs has been working with me on how to do it for months. I'm missing my Star Wars collection. Fess up, did you take it?"

  "No. Why would I do that? It's kind of a stupid movie. Everyone always goes on about it like it's perfect, but really, it's kind of so-so, at best. The one with the teddy bears is the best of them. Well, except Jar-Jar. He was cute. I liked the little kid, too. He couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, but he whined less than the other guys did."

  The man let his mouth drop open as Brian moved toward the shower. As long as they weren't hurting Penny, it wasn't really his business. Honestly, even if they were just going to slap her around a little, it was probably fair. Not that they would. He wouldn't let them either, and knew it.

  The girl snickered a bit.

  "Brian doesn't even know that we've done it. A lot."

  That got him to stop.

  "Waah?" He let his voice go back to its normal pitch for it, which got everyone to stop and stare. It sounded funny now, and he was loud enough that it was heard over the falling warm water.

  Penny nodded, slowly. Her face almost flat, and without expression. She was staring at him now, her eyes going lower than was strictly comfortable.

  "I used to slip into your room, when you were new. Before you could see me? After they drugged you so that you'd sleep? We must have done it ten or twenty times. It was funny, because you kept telling everyone that you weren't getting any, but you were. I even gave you a handjob at dinner once. Mark almost caught me, but I covered well enough that he thought I'd just dropped my napkin."

  He looked at the others, but then shrugged. It was bad, but he needed a shower. The one thing couldn't actually be allowed to stop the other.

  Now he felt suddenly dirty, anyway, since Penny had just admitted to basically raping him over and over again. In public too, it sounded like.

  It was Tobin that took charge then though. His voice actually upset sounding. Angry, not just shy.

  "Get out. Denis, make her go now. We'll deal with this later. I can't... Who knows what she's done to everyone else? I... Get out. Now. We will talk about this later. I need clothes. Possibly a stick."

  The tiny man sounded halfway to freaked out about it, too. Brian... honestly, he didn't really care. That was a hard thing to admit, but it was true. Once the idea probably would have been a welcome one to him, since he would have let her do anything she wanted, even if she didn't tell him about it. If she needed to use him, in order to feel good about herself or whole... Except that wasn't right, was it? If it had been her being raped, he wouldn't have cut whoever had done it any slack, would he?

  Still, she was their friend, even if she'd been a bit bad in the past. Before she even got to the door, he took a deep breath, and then blew it out.

  "I think this is part of her first mode, in a way. Not that we won't have to do something about it now. Not that I know what to do. Worse, I bet Christian knows all about this, too. She nearly has to, doesn't she? She's a telepath."

  Then he went to wash up, not even bothering to think about it, except that he had to, since now he was worried about his friend, Penny. She was that, wasn't she? Even if he did kind of hate her sometimes?

  She wasn't bad, just... Flawed. Like they all were. He could see it, but didn't know if anyone else really would. The girl was sick, not evil.

  Even if she did seem to have no problem killing people. Then, from the outside he doubted he looked like he did either. Given everything, he mostly didn't, anymore.

  He'd slaughtered, and even tortured to death, psycho-killers who hadn't killed even one percent of what he had himself. The only real difference was that he did it to protect others. The innocent. The victim. Those people did it for their own reasons. That made him right, and them wrong.

  Didn't it?

  It was a thing he didn't really like to think about, but he didn't really know that every person he fought was a killer, or even that people were going to die each time he traded out, did he? It had seemed like it, and he certainly felt like it was true, but what if he were just delusional? There was no proof that he wasn't just showing up to kill people most of the time. Not outside of what his own power told him to do.

  After he got himself clean, studiously refusing to look for an invisible girl as he did it since he couldn't be bothered to care anymore about stupid shit like that, he got dressed in his armor, complete with knife. Just in case he had to fight. Then Brian walked back to his room, carrying his soiled clothing with him, as well as the now damp towel.

  It was a nice beige thing. Soft and absorbent. All of them at the new place were exactly the same, and were washed communally. He tried to do a load of the things every time he washed anything else. Brian knew he used enough of them that it was only fair.

  His life pretty much required that of him. He sweated most of the time, anymore.

  He started thinking about other things, after he arranged his tiny room, a single, and put his clothing in the hamper. It was a lot less space than he was used to having now, but he'd had smaller digs, when he lived with Doug. He'd made a point of giving his pal the larger space at the house they'd shared. That wasn't what he was thinking about now though.

  No, that was different.

  Even when he got to the upper level, with its open plan and large lounging spaces, he managed to distract himself, going over the things that had caught his attention. It wasn't about Penny either. He already knew what had to happen there, didn't he? He felt it, inside. They were going to shame the girl a bit, and then her power would make everyone there forget that anything had happened. It was part of her power to make people forget her, and it was clear that the second Denis released her, that part of Penny would strike out with a vengeance. He could feel it coming off of her in waves already.

  No, it was the other thing he brooded on that bothered him. It felt selfish, but was it? If he got sick and died, or even grew weaker, then others would suffer, when he failed to save them. Worse, a part of him didn't care about those other people really. It just wanted him to not look bad.

  There was a crowd around Penny in the front space, the living room area, more or less. They didn't seem all that hostile, even as she stood there, completely visible, going on about what she'd done to each of them, one by one. It was a lot. Most of it was no worse than what she'd done to him, physically, but some of the people objected to it a lot more.

  Especially Warren.

  Carl, who'd also been one of her targets seemed to roughly shrug the whole thing off, and barely seemed concerned by the news, but his boyfriend looked about ready to punch the subdued girl right in the head. Mark had mentioned him being a bit quick tempered lately, hadn't he?

  Denis was standing directly behind the visible Penny, as everyone else glared at her. She couldn't even shrink away, being too relaxed for that at the moment. Near the front, looking almost angry, was the Director. The old one, Kevin Moore. It was so natural for him to take control that everyone just sort of let him do it, even if he wasn't any more in charge of them now than anyone else. Except that habit was powerful, wasn't it?

  "Calm now, everyone. I'm sure we can work this out, without violence." He was staring directly at Warren. The thing was, Brian wasn't certain of that at all. The man wasn't Infected, but he'd fight if he thought someone was being wronged. Even if it was a bad idea
. Like "jumping a super soldier" kind of poor plan. Penny had pretty much raped him, and as she spoke about it, the news went from pretty much to being about as bad as it could get without a gang being involved.

  "Then I took Georgia's big vibrator, and lubed it up really well and shoved it up your butt. You didn't know it was there, but you came anyway. Gobs and gobs of it. That was kind of gross. Don't worry, I washed it before I put it back." That last bit was addressed to Georgia, who oddly enough seemed to be one of the only people that wasn't too worked up over what Penny had been up to. Not even the theft portions. Everyone already knew that part though, didn't they?

  Warren apparently wasn't a fan of being anally sodomized, even by a decently cute girl. That probably made it worse for him, even. Sure enough he jumped forward, his fist lashing out with pretty good speed. Not so much that no one else in the room could react however. It wasn't Brian that stopped him though, since he really was too far away, unless he switched with the girl, who wasn't going to be hurt that night. Except her pride. That was in for a beating. She deserved it, but it would be hard on her for a long time after that. Even if everyone else forgot what she was saying, he wouldn't. Just when she'd started to make real friends too.

  No, it was of all people, Prime that moved in front of the man, taking the punch meant to smash open Penny's head on his armored chest. He didn't look smug about it though. In fact, he moved in very carefully, and gave Warren a hug.

  "I know, this is bad. Horrible. We have to do something about it, but hurting her won't fix what she's done." Then he kept holding the man, who started crying.

  "That bitch... I... It's like before. People get to do whatever they want to me, and I can't..." There was real sobbing then, and Chris, their friendly super-telepath, ran from the room.

  That was too bad, since Brian had some tough questions for her, too. It was possible that she knew that as well and was trying to dodge out on the idea. Not that she couldn't just lie to him. If she claimed that she didn't know about what Penny had been getting up to, there wasn't a lot he could say about it. It wasn't really likely though, if he understood things correctly. She seemed to pick up things from people all the time without meaning to.

  Instead he moved in and patted Warren on the back, until he was pushed out of the way, fairly gently, by Carl. The intense man, their former lead trainer, held his love tight, and rocked him gently.

  Then he glared a bit at Scott, speaking with a bit more venom than the large gold colored man was used to.

  "Do something about this."

  Like he could?

  None of them really had the power to punish Penny, unless they just killed her. Oh, they might lock her up, but they lacked a prison. Beating her would end up with bodies all over the place. Even Denis trapping her for a few moments was pretty much a trick. He'd found her once, and caught her, but if he let her go, she wouldn't be trapped as easily again.

  Worse, Brian wasn't really certain that his friend, someone he was nearly close to even, had a conscience anymore. It didn't work to punish a person who was like that. You either killed them, or let them go. They couldn't afford to end her life right then, so it meant she was basically going to get away with everything she'd done.

  She was one of the only people on the planet that their arch enemy, Braid, couldn't see in the time stream. Brian was the other. Along with Becky, who was nowhere to be seen at the moment. Probably since she was spending most of her time slapping Braid in the head as hard as she could, day and night.

  That wasn't too hard, unfortunately, and while she could move some objects, the best she could throw so far weighed a few ounces. If she ever learned to do more, then Braid would be dead. He'd always kind of thought that it would be him making the kill there, but honestly, that didn't matter, as long as she was dead. Her ability to see all the possible futures was too hard to beat. Worse, the woman seemed to think that he, Proxy, would be the one to take her out as well. Even being unable to see him, if it was really true, she'd managed to keep escaping, because she knew that he was a problem.

  Penny however, was barely even a thing to her.

  So, for the time being, they needed her, and the girl, the woman, had to stay alive and able to work. Willing to as well. Otherwise things might just end up with millions, or more, dead.

  Still, it wasn't time for him to tell everyone else what was going to happen. Soon enough they'd all forget about it anyway. Denis kept the girl confessing, and by the end of it, near three in the afternoon, almost everyone there had been gotten to be the target of her words at least once.

  He clapped his hands then, softly.

  "All right. Penny, you're on kitchen duty from now on. With me. You don't leave my sight, and if I can't be there, Mark will watch you. Twenty-four-seven. You understand that? Jason, Tobin, we need you for that, too. One other person as well. Maybe more than that." After all, they couldn't make Penny do a good job, could they?

  Brian looked at the distortion in space before anyone else did, to see that Mary, his lovely and loving alien girlfriend was there. She was great. Sweet and just feisty enough to keep things interesting without being a pain all the time. In the main she was pretty easy going, and looked almost his age. With her was Marcia, who stared at the assemblage of bodies with suspicion, and a teddy bear.

  Except, it moved on its own, and looked around the space, curiously.

  He, and it was pretty clear that it was a male, had on a white T-shirt, dark blue jeans and dark blue deck shoes. The kind with big white laces. His face was cute though. He had rounded cheeks, and deep brown fur all over, at least the exposed flesh, and looked decently muscular underneath it all if rounded a bit. Like a fairly idealized computer animation of what a human like bear might look like. If it wasn't made creepy.

  Crossing her arms, Marcia looked at everyone. Her hair was a bit of brown fuzz on the top, having been melted off not too long before. That was done by Lancaster, who was well across the room, glaring at Penny. They'd gone out, so that seemed like a good idea to Brian. He sort of felt like doing that himself.

  That didn't happen though. Instead he waved a bit, and pointed at the subdued Penny.

  "She got caught in the men's shower. Denis managed to hit her with a truth compulsion, and forced her to relax so she can't get away. It seems that she's... Pretty much she's been molesting everyone in the place. For years. Some of it was flat out rape. Stealing too, of course. Since we don't have lockup here, she's going to be guarded all the time. Right now that means being in the kitchen. We need more people for it. Is anyone going to volunteer? It would especially help if you know how to cook. I don't know how really, and we're only going to need so many pots washed."

  No one said anything for a while, which got the teddy bear to take a step forward. He was holding a military style duffle in his right hand. That was a good thing, at least. He had fingers. They looked a bit stubby, and like they ended in slightly flat claws, but he could hold things. Life was hard enough, without being unable to open a door.

  "I can do that. I was a cook in the army, about forever ago. I'll need to stay by the food anyway." The voice was deep, considering he was maybe five feet tall. Everyone stared at him now, including Penny. She was still being controlled though, so let her face turn into a grin.

  "You can sleep with me. I promise not to do anything to you... Except that I totally would. I haven't had a teddy bear in a long time."

  Rather than take offense, the bear shook his head, and let out a low chuckle that didn't show on his face. Or, it did, but he looked a bit like he was grinning constantly. The inside of his mouth was wet though, and his teeth looked pretty normal. Like anyone else's. Flat, not long fangs.

  "Normally I'd consider it, but if you're in trouble right now, we should avoid that, and let one of the other women here that crave my soft furry hide have a crack at me. Now, let's get to that? Oh, I guess I should introduce myself?" He glanced back at Marcia, and winked at Mary, who smiled at him. "I think I have
the order of things down well enough. I'm Edward Rigsby. Call me Rigs. Former Army, martial arts instructor after that, and later, comic book writer. I popped three months ago. As you might imagine, that put me out of a job." He tilted his head and looked around the room, seeming decently charming. Then he held up his stubby fingers, to show what he meant about being out of work. "I can't type worth crud now. My ability is to create and manifest energy beings. Very powerful and complex ones."

  He stopped there, but Marcia cleared her throat.

  "Not to be a bitch, Rigs, but first mode? They'll need to know. It's kind of important."

  "Right. Well, you can't help but be yourself, can you?" That was playful, and he batted at her arm, lightly enough that it didn't make a sound when he connected. "So... first mode."

  Then he went totally silent for a bit, and shook his head.

  "Homicidal rage. Constant, and never ending."

  There was no softness to the words, but it was hard to credit. It was only that Chris came back and started nodding while looking at him that got everyone else to get the idea.

  The man in front of them, who looked like a children's toy, and seemed pretty cheerful considering he'd only been Infected for three months, wanted to end them all. More than that, he wasn't doing it, for some reason. Not even trying or coming off like a murderous a-hole. That spoke of something that Brian understood immediately. For some reason, this being was able to defeat the feeling that tried to overwhelm him constantly. True he wasn't being attacked or anything, or pushed at the moment, but that was probably why Marcia had insisted he let them know.

  The creation of energy beings was his power...

  Brian nodded.

  "This is Team Four?"

  The bear let his head come up, "the one and only. Pleased to meet you."

  That was enough for Brian at the moment. Everyone else actually too, since they wanted to get back to punishing Penny. Before Brian, or even Kevin, could say anything, Rigs shushed them all. Gently.