Infected 8: Impulse: A Whole New Day (3 page)

"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 fighters, 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 about 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.

"We were told of no plans. Were we to wait somewhere? Or merely be at our domicile? If the IPB base has been demolished, does that mean all within are lost? We should go there, and seek to give aid, if we can!"

He didn't try to move however, which was in part due to the fact that he wasn't a complete moron, even if he did seem like it at times. The other part was that the large boy with them started to disagree even before the statement was finished coming from his lips.

"No. Whatever happened, us going there to poke around won't help anything. The radiation alone would kill us. Me at least. I don't know about the rest of you, but
I
don't have any super powers. If I get hit with something like that, I'll just die."

Bridget felt a sense of relief, the topic having changed enough so that she didn't blurt out the whole plan in front of strangers. Charity and this boy... She needed a name for him.

Sticking out her tiny hand, she moved in a bit, which got him to shake back. It was part of her training in how to deal with the public. Don't
hit
them, and assume that they'll be polite if you follow normal social conventions. Like a good firm handshake. Even if she was so small that his hand nearly swallowed hers. That was normal for her, so she wasn't caught off guard.

"Bridget Chambers, I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?" There, that was the right thing to say, wasn't it? She sounded like herself again, which meant high pitched, and speaking a little too fast, but the boy understood her, and took her warm hand in his much cooler one.

"Will. Will Dominic. Um, like I mentioned, I don't have any powers." He held her hand however, not letting go for a while. It wasn't flirtatious, however. He didn't let his face look pained, but did look down at his hand, which Bridget realized was turning a lovely shade of red.

With white around the edges from her squeezing it too hard.

"Oops. Sorry. Infected, as you might have guessed, Super strength, speed, good senses. First mode impulsiveness." She let go suddenly, and watched as the guy carefully didn't try to shake his hand to restore function. That meant he was pretty tough, she bet. Some kind of athlete, most likely.

She realized her mistake about five seconds after the words came out. Regular people, ones not in the IPB, didn't just
admit
to being Infected, most days. They hid it carefully and protected the secret with their lives. At the base, well, everyone was infected, for the most part. If you met someone new, you just told them what your mode was, so they'd have some idea as to how to deal with you. In her case that meant being ready for strange behavior, as the right kind of stray thought took her. It used to be that way, at any rate. Lately she'd been doing a lot better. It was hard, and took all the skill that she'd learned from Hobbs, but in the main she held together, even under stress.

She didn't take the information back, just moving to Charity, who shook hands like a girl. She looked down at Bridget's hand too, but the whole thing went better this time. No one nearly lost their fingers, for instance.

"Charity Peetz. Um... I..." She looked away and then out to where the base had been, the giant cloud still billowing up into the early morning sky. "Empathy. I can sort of read minds too. I... Guess that my first mode is compassion? Like Lady Glory. Only not that strong, I don't think. From what I've read it isn't even a quarter of what she has to put up with." She waited then, cringing before anyone even had a chance to react.