Hush (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 1) (6 page)

"That's my guess. This is
awfully coincidental otherwise, isn't it? So, that's a good enough reason to
get together? Even if we are government agents?"

A part of her wanted to avoid
them all, since death and destruction tended to follow at least two of the
three. The other one was mainly a walking fighting manual, which was kind of
fascinating however.

The deciding factor was a simple
one for her. If she was around them, then she'd have a chance to see what they
knew, and then, if possible, do something about it. It was a risk, but not one
that was too big for her. After all, she just had to get through a few days of
it. Then she could let them leave, and take up her hobby again, once they were
convinced that it was a normal killer.

That would remove them from the
picture totally. Without her even breaking a sweat.

She nodded then.

"Sounds good. At
seven-thirty? We should meet someplace." That required an exchange of
numbers, which Brian handled. Different scenarios ran through his head about
things, including how to get her out alone, but he decided to play it safe.
Going out in a group was the better idea that way.

Wally, for his part,
really
wanted to beg off. The letters were really large on that idea. Avoiding these
people wasn't just about not being killed or inducted into a military unit he
wasn't really right for either. His main goal was to not have to think about
his embarrassing brother any more than was required for him.

So, after a few minutes of
hemming and hawing, the others left, and she was able to finally get to work.

The whole thing was so dangerous
that it left her with a bit of a tingle. The good kind.

It was a dangerous game, but that
was the best thing in her life. So feeling happy enough about it all, she
actually did her job for the rest of the day. Smiling when no one was looking.

Work was boring. Especially in
the days before any major holiday. Thanksgiving wasn't even a real thing, to
Cindy's way of thinking. Losers ate too much, and had to hang around with their
family. The more adventurous watched sports. There wasn't even a real tradition
to it. The whole thing was just a gimmick to bring people together during the
Civil War.

Literally. Lincoln had just
wanted a way to distract people, so came up with the second lamest holiday that
people still celebrated in the U.S. The
worst
one was Arbor Day.
Celebrating by planting a tree was ridiculous. Plus, something like five people
even noticed it happening.

Still, it was big, and that meant
they were going to be closed for a day while it went on. Of course that meant
losing pay for two days that week, but she saved her money, not needing much,
so that wasn't a big deal. She had her rent and food covered. The rest would
take care of itself.

There were a few new knives that
she wanted to get, but that could wait. Especially if she was going to be
hanging out with the freaking IPB. Taking Impulse to the flea market to buy
blades probably wouldn't be the smartest plan in the world. It would be even
worse if she stole them, which was how she'd gotten all the others.

Like most days Cindy marked time,
and helped two people with school reports. They were high school kids, so she
did most of the work for them, getting the resources they needed and literally
opening the books and pointing at the information they needed. She hinted that
they needed to rewrite things in their own words, but at least one of them
wouldn't.

That boy had spent half his time
trying to touch her, which was a bit creepy. Not that the fifteen year old
wanted to cop a feel.
That
was simply biology. No, it was that he was
thinking that she wasn't going to
notice
his hand brushing her ass like
that. That happened when she walked to the stacks with him, to get the book he
needed. It was about Mesopotamia, which was heady stuff for a kid.

As soon as they were in place, he
moved closer. He wasn't cute, and she was short enough that he might think she
was younger than she really was, but that still didn't mean she was too idiotic
to notice him creeping up on her. She nearly laughed when he started in,
brushing her hip. She drifted away, since getting it on in the library wasn't a
dream of hers, but he followed along.

After a bit, probably feeling
pretty clever, she turned to look at him. The words over his head...

Were
all
about the work he
wanted to do. The bumping into her hadn't really been on accident, but from
what was being said, it had largely been due to hormones and a need for contact
with someone. No one in his life really
touched
him, after all. So he
got that contact where he could.

That caused her to nearly laugh
again. Still, knowing the reason for it let her just pat him on the arm, pull
the book he needed, and get on with her day after a bit of explanation about
how to put a paper together. It wasn't
hard
, but a lot of kids panicked
over the idea.

The other kid had clearly been
planning to plagiarize. Not that it bothered her, but doing that from major
resource works was a good way to get caught. That wasn't her business however.
She'd done her bit, telling him not to.

There were some calls too, which
were actually nice to get. At least someone needed to find information that
wasn't available online. That was about it. In the end, just to find something
to do, she ended up going out and cleaning the place up. Restocking books,
mainly. Most people weren't pigs. Not there. The building itself, with its
history and traditions caused most to be pretty respectful.

So, she marked time, and clocked
out at six-thirty. She half expected Glenda to whine at her about having taken
the first half hour to talk to people. In fact, the woman kept looking at her
and did track her down in the back room before she could leave. At first Cindy
really expected a dressing down, but the words, those magical symbols above her
bosses cranium, told on her.

She was just freaked out.

She might not have been the best
person in the world, but Glenda Graeves was fairly intelligent. She'd worked
out, with a bit of computer time, who Wally's brother was,
and
that the
Infection often ran in families.

That explained the hiss that
came. It wasn't needed, given Wally had left nearly two hours before.

"Cindy! What... What did the
IPB tell you?"

She nearly lied, and said
nothing, but realized that a nothing like Glenda didn't really need to be
protected from the truth.

"That Wally's brother Clark
is probably dead. It was the Devorah Timberland thing. The alien woman? Anyway,
no one knows for certain. Wally wasn't thrilled to hear it, but also isn't that
worked up. It seems like his brother was kind of a pervert. Sleeping with a
young girl.
Impulse
, in fact. So I think he was pretty happy to be rid
of the man." She wanted to shrug, but waited, seeing what the woman was
really trying to get at.

It didn't take long.

"If... If this Clark was
Infected, then what about Wallace? That kind of thing carries, doesn't it? One
person gets it, then the people closest to them do too. We could catch it...
Maybe I should ask him to leave?"

That got her to snort and roll
her eyes.

"You
know
it doesn't
work that way. They teach it in health class at school." She managed not
to call the woman an idiotic bitch about it. Barely.

The woman didn't stand on her
fear at least, which was kind of impressive, given how often she really did.

"I know. I know. But, if
he's Infected, then he could hurt us. Infected people are crazy. Everyone knows
that. That primary method thing?" The words first mode flashed above Glenda's
head then, showing that she
knew
the correct phrase for it. Also text
explaining that she didn't want to look like a bigot, even though she was a bit
of one.

"He isn't. For one thing, if
he were dangerous, we'd all be dead by now. He's been here for years. Longer
than I have. He's been nothing but nice to me. To you too, even if you are a
bit of a witch towards him part of the time."

That created a very interesting
split suddenly. Glenda crossed her arms, and glared.

"
Excuse
me?"

Cin nodded, and read the text
which said she knew exactly what she'd done to Wally over the years. It was
worse than Cindy had ever seen, personally. If she had, they would have argued
about it already.

"Sure. You give him the
worst hours, dump the lion's share of the work on him, then make fun of him
with the girl's in the back when he's doing all their work. Sure, he
isn't
great looking, but he's the best worker here. You should treat him better, but
don't. Probably because..." She shrugged, and looked over the other
woman's head again, seeing the text, scrolling like a screen, going through a
lot of data as she was watched.

Most of it was showing a bit of
panic, and was gearing up to try and attack Cindy. With words and veiled
threats. That mainly had to do with being fired.

Cindy put her hands out.

"So, think about it. If you
can get away with all that, and he's done nothing, I think you're not just
pretty safe, but
really
safe. Given that, you should be nicer now,
right? After all, if he
is
Infected, then pushing him wouldn't be a
great plan. Besides, you can't fire him for being Infected. After the IPB
showed up, even if he went around glowing all the time, you couldn't. It would
be grounds for a lawsuit." Which was simply true.

She knew that if she got fired
for being Infected
she
was suing the bitch. She'd get Wally to as well,
if it happened, after being told about it like she had been.

Glenda didn't pick up on anything
expect her being fairly warm and honest with her, so didn't really get mad, and
managed to think for a moment before going for her.

"All right. That's probably
a good idea. I hadn't realized that my
joking
could seem like that. I
was just trying to be friendly, not really tear him down."

Which was why she'd hidden her
attacks from the man. So that it would just be her playing. Not being an evil
and horrible person. As well as a bad boss. The woman
wasn't
that bad,
compared to most. Not if Cin was going to be fair about it all. It was just
that killing her always felt so right, even for the little things that she did.
That made it hard to be nice to her all the time.

She kept talking a little gleam
in her eye.

"I didn't know that you
liked him that much. Are you two dating?" It was supposed to seem clever,
and a little sly. Like she was trying to needle her over it.

That wasn't her real intent. She
was trying to get an admission, so that she could fire them for a real cause.
It was against the rules for coworkers to date. Other people
did
, but
that wasn't a thing that Cin had control over and wouldn't matter in court.

"Nope. I
do
like him
best, but I haven't really dated anyone in years." That was the simple
truth. She hadn't since she'd woken up one day feeling cool inside and seeing
script over the heads of others. It hadn't taken long to figure out why it had
happened.

The woman tried again, cajoling.

"Oh, are you sure? No going
out for coffee? Maybe the occasional dinner?"

That just got her to roll her
eyes.

"No. He's never asked.
Anyway, I need to go. Those IPB people are supposed to meet me for dinner. I
don't know what they want. Probably a free tour guide. Which I can do. Not that
they don't freak me out. I've had nightmares about two of them, after all."
She hadn't, but that wasn't the point.

She just needed to give a reason
why she'd be going with them.

Glenda nodded, her eyes going
wide. They were a blue green, and seemed a little murky. Muddled and confused,
all the time. Especially now.

"I understand. I didn't know
that little girl was the same one from television. All those murders... What...
I don't need this. We don't need that kind of person."

That seemed a little over the top
to her. After all, Glenda was a bigot, but not
that
huge of one. She was
already coming to grips with the idea that Wally, their buddy, wasn't a bad
guy, no matter what. Even if he turned out to be Infected. Looking up, she saw
that the woman was processing things, and actually trying to just be concerned
about the killers.

Cindy had to fight a smile.

"I hear that one. Still,
they fight for
us
. We should give them the benefit of the doubt. I mean,
if you were about to be murdered for your skin, wouldn't
you
want Proxy
to show up and take your place?" Thin, tidy strips of flesh being cut
off... Red trickling out from the knife work...

That got a nod, and the woman
backing up a little.

"Well, I won't keep you. See
you tomorrow? We close at five, I think I saw you on the schedule?"

She was on the thing, which the
woman knew. Put on it, along with Wally, because they didn't have anyone that
would miss them, working on the day before Thanksgiving like that. It was
bullshit, but she could use the money, and it wasn't going to be hard. No one
really slammed the library that close to the holidays. Even if they did, she
wasn't really going to mind doing her easy job. Plus, Glenda had put herself on
it too, all day. She had a family, complete with three kids, so some part of
her was trying to be fair about it all.

"Nine to five. Well, see you
then!"

She got out of there, wondering
if she should be more concerned with her boss working out that
she
was
Infected, or that Impulse could accidently rip her spine out.

Oddly, the idea that they'd work
out she was the very killer they were sort of looking for didn't even cross her
mind. It was probably narcissism, but she felt like they wouldn't be able to
work that one out very easily. In all the world she was one of the last people
that anyone would consider as being a danger to anyone else.

That was done on purpose, a lot.
Her mind was wicked and so were her hobbies, but she managed to seem fairly
mild, most days. Getting after Glenda about Wally had been a mistake, though
one long in coming. Out of everyone there
he
was the one that no one
should be messing with. They did it, because he was a little awkward. He wasn't
the biggest, strongest looking guy, and seemed a bit off. So all his hard work,
the extra time he put in... Even his guarding them from possible harm, that
stuff didn't count.

It was kind of pissing her off,
she realized, as she drove away.

Sure, he'd made some difficulties
for her, by being too attentive for a while, but his
heart
had been in
the right place. It was a strange thing to her, considering that. It wasn't
that she felt things like love really, at least she never had, but the man was
hers. Like a dog might be. She didn't feel that strongly emotionally towards
him perhaps. That still didn't mean he could be kicked without her saying
something about it.