Hush (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 1) (10 page)

"So, that date? I was
thinking we could get together tomorrow? It's a bit fast, but you're only in
town for a few days, so I either rope you in now, or you'll get away. So,
dinner? You're buying, just so you know. I might need to save my money for a
while." She glared over his shoulder at where the news vans had been. It
was enough for him to get the idea. Laws were fine, but Glenda wasn't going to
be kind about it all, most likely.

Proxy, the IPB's pet killer, made
a face, and was about to apologize, when she shook her head.

"Well, I'll deal. So, at
six? Something nicer than Denny's. I'll let you pick." She was being
pushy, but that was all about throwing him off balance. Plus saving funds. She
wasn't totally wrong about work possibly going away. Right before Christmas,
too. Luckily she didn't normally do gifts for anyone.

Brian smiled anyway, and nodded.

"Okay. Let's do that. Six.
Something nicer than Denny's. So, like... Burgerville? El Taco Loco?"

She laughed, but didn't fall for
the line. His thoughts were scrambling to find the nicest places in town. She
really would be fine with burgers, but it was sweet that he was willing to try.
Helpful too, since the more real he thought this thing was, the better off
she'd be.

She got away, into her car, and
drove off slowly, heading the opposite direction from the IPB. Not for the
first time in her life, she was pretty glad she had her power. It let her know
for certain that her plan was working. She drove slowly, since the road
conditions required it, if spinning off onto the sidewalk wasn't the plan for the
evening. For all that had happened, it wasn't that late yet, and though the
roads were a nice and uniform white on the side streets, there was
just
enough to keep things covered.

Even as she pulled into her
garage it started to turn to rain. That was good. She had things to do, and the
snow would have made them harder. Even her work outs would have been. This way
she could get a run in before work in the morning. It was clear to her that
staying fit was paying off. Not only did it have Proxy more interested in her
for her ass than for the crimes she'd committed, but it had let her kick some
booty of her own. Taking down two men that had come to fight wasn't exactly
nothing after all.

For a moment, she let herself
feel proud of that fact.

Then she recalled how close she
was to losing everything. Rather than feeling scared, there was a thrill that
ran through her about then. It was a sturdy thing, that shivered down her spine
and back up. There was a bit of a tingle between her legs from it too. Enough
that she considered spending some time with her shower head, thinking about it.

Which she did, wanting to clean
up before bed anyway.

Her thoughts made up a story,
about how she could fool them all, and win in the end. The hero of her own
tale. Even if it was just a fact that Cindy wasn't the good guy. She got off on
it anyway, and managed a good scrub before she climbed into bed. She was
dressed in her loose yellow pj's, which weren't exactly sexy, but were
comfortable for sleeping.

Then she went out, until the
alarm went off.

Even considering the risk, she
woke with a smile on her lips.

Her run wasn't exactly a
twenty-six mile marathon, but she did her best to get out five times a week and
cover some distance. That day she was headed for five miles, which wasn't as
far as she could go by any means. It meant pushing into pain, so she could
build up a bit, cardio wise. When you had her hobbies, being in decent shape
paid off.

She had a regular route that she
covered, which described a five mile loop, almost exactly. There were very few
cars out, since it was about seven in the morning, and while a week day, it
was
right before Thanksgiving, so a lot of people had it off. Not her, but it would
be a light day.
Right
up until she got fired. After that things would
likely be tense. Thankfully she had some time to prep her mind for the shock of
it. Otherwise she'd probably kill Glenda then and there, in the library itself.

That would be foolish however.

This way she could stand back for
a while, a year or two, and then come back, when she wouldn't be a suspect any
longer. It would have to be done differently than her normal modus operandi.
Something
so
different that there would be no way to tie the two things
together. Shooting came to mind for it. That wasn't a skill she had, but if she
got in with the IPB, they'd probably train her in things like that. It would
mean having a weapon that she could destroy too, so that it couldn't be tracked
back to her.

Thinking about that, musing on
how to best murder her boss, reassured her in a way. It would be a disruption
to her life, being fired, but she might be able to get around it, if she didn't
sit on things. She could call up Agent Rizzo that day and see if he'd give her
an interview. Hopefully they paid well enough. Not that she needed a lot of
money. Her needs were simple, really. A working car, insurance, a place to live
and good enough clothing to blend in. Some food. The rest, even warm, running
water, was negotiable.

As long as she could kill when
she needed to.

There was a kind of nagging
hunger for it, inside her. Most of the time it wasn't that bad. She could hold
off, let people go, for weeks, or even months, at a time. Then it would take
her, and nothing she did would prevent it from happening. Cindy knew it was
wrong, of course. Intellectually. She wasn't dim witted or anything. It was
even possible for her to make a rational argument for why people shouldn't kill
others like that.

It was disruptive to the societal
support mechanism, for instance. When she killed a man, he couldn't take care
of his kids. His wife would have to struggle harder to make things happen. The
little ones would have a much greater chance of being abused, most likely
by
the mother. That, or her new boyfriends. Then they'd grow up to be worse
people, than if they'd had both parents there, and the odds were greater that
their
kids would be scum too. Horrible people bred more of the same, as a rule.

The thing wasn't that she
couldn't understand the cost of what she did, at least the potential one for
it. Her deal, as it always had been, was that she didn't really care. Future
generations didn't impact her directly, so they didn't matter. She'd be gone by
the time the full impact of her work was felt. A legacy of pain and suffering
that she'd never live to see.

Her feet padded on the damp ground,
as a fine mist hit her face. It was cold, but not freezing out. She'd had to
dress warm anyway, so that she wouldn't go hypothermic. That was thanks to being
so small. Her breath came a bit painfully, pushing like she was. It still
wasn't fast, but she did all right that way.

When she came back around she
sprinted the last three hundred feet, going full out. That put her on the
doorstep to her own house, gasping and feeling a tiny bit like she was about to
throw up. The air rasped as it moved in and out, but she held herself well
enough to get inside, and into the shower. Only after drinking two large
tumblers of water.

Her day was set to start a bit
earlier that day, so Cin pushed through the morning routine, pretending she didn't
know what waited for her at work. After a bit, she shrugged.

"Fuck it." Either it
would happen, or not.

She got in a few minutes early,
which was normal for her, and clocked in like she always did. No one else was
in the back room with her, though a few of the women were there already, out on
the floor. Wally was too. It was clear that they
all
had seen the news.
Focusing on her coworkers, she was able to kind of swing their pages in front
of her eyes before she went out onto the floor. Her desk was toward the back,
on the right, but Glenda was planning to ambush her first thing, and
accuse
her of being Infected. The funny thing was that, while they all thought she
might be, no one was actually certain of it. The national news feeds, which
they'd been watching, had hinted at that, but hadn't actually made a big deal
about it. They didn't have her name going up, just her face, standing with
Bridget, off to the side. Looking awful, since she'd been in a fight.

Wally was actually worried for
her. Not just because he could get the general feeling of the room. No, he was
worried that, if she was shown to be Infected, that she might well out him as
well, as some kind of defense. How getting them
both
fired would help
she didn't know, but it was written right there, in red and white.

He expected her to use him,
against his will. Even if it wouldn't help her in any way.

That pissed her off, but she
could kind of see it. He was expecting her to act like a psychopath. Not
because he saw her that way, but because that was how most women actually
seemed to him, all the time. That she was one, a real psycho, worked in his
favor, even if he didn't know it.

Taking a deep breath, she headed
out to her desk. There were no patrons yet, the doors not being opened until
nine that day. That was soon, and Glenda had her keys out, to do it herself.
That wasn't the norm, but it gave her an excuse to be out there, instead of
getting Wally to do it, which was what normally happened on the days he worked.

The thing there was that her boss
had no clue how to approach her. It wasn't due to fear, as much as the idea
that accusing her of being Infected was a big deal. It was, to her mind,
basically the same as claiming she was a criminal. Not all people that had the
disorder really were, but when it happened, it was pretty often bad. Infected
people could be dangerous, so it made sense not to push them.

The look on her face was kind of
stuck between a half smile and a deer in the headlights panic. It looked like
she hadn't slept much, either. That was never good, since the woman got grumpy
when she hadn't had enough time in bed.

Cin read all of this, carefully
and waved to her as she walked over. It was clear that if she left this alone,
it would get worse, not better.

So, she smiled hugely, a fake,
but bright thing, and stopped about five feet away.

"Yes. I'm Infected. No, I'm
not dangerous. I don't have much of a sense of fear, that's all. Also, I can
read data about people. Above their heads?" She waved a bit, indicating
the normal place such things showed up for her. "So, it isn't dangerous,
and while I do know all your secrets, none of them are all
that
bad. You
don't have to avoid me or anything. It isn't a thing I can help, but..."
That got her to shrug, and then just tell the bald truth. "Honestly? I
don't care that much about most of it."

Shrewdly, or slightly out of
shock, Glenda stared at her. She was frightened. Even while knowing that was
silly, since Cindy was her friend. A person that she'd known for years. That
part was amazing actually, since her boss absorbed the news and while part of
her wanted to close down, she actually rallied.

"Oh... It must have been so
hard to keep it all hidden. How long?" She was about to speak, to explain
her meaning, but it was plain. Written large above her head.

"Three years, more or less.
The whole time you've known me. Most of the time it isn't that big of a deal
for me, to tell the truth. I mean, it's an extension of my job here, really.
Just another resource for information gathering." She grinned, and shook
her head. "Which sounds cold, but isn't really. I read for a living, so it
flows from one thing into the other. This is about the perfect place for
me."

The idea was true, but she'd be
fine, if she had to leave.

Glenda hugged her. It was
impulsive, and a little worried. Fear of how she might react. She just hugged
her back and broke off first, letting go and moving back.

Her boss, pasted a fake smile of
her own on her face.

"Well, that isn't an issue.
You do good work, and... I don't know how everyone else will feel about it.
They might be scared?"

Cindy had to nod at that, since a
lot of the women probably
would
be frightened.

"Well, I'm still just me.
The same as I always was. So if they think I'm a bitch, that won't change. Not
that they all do. I
try
to be nice anyway." In fact she faked that
daily, and knew that it worked, having read all about it. "Also, you
should all be nicer to Wally. He just found out his brother died."

That got a nod, though it was
stiff. The man seemed awkward to her, which meant he wasn't as good as he
should have been in her eyes. Even if he worked like a horse and was both fast
and mentally agile. It wasn't going to change either. Glenda knew, on a deep
level, that she, and most of the other women, looked down on the guy. They
found him creepy, even if he wasn't really. That meant, to her mind, that he didn't
count very much. It was insane, because he was their best worker by far.

Glenda patted her arm, and
started to move away, then stopped.

"What... Do you need me to
keep this secret? I won't tell anyone, if you don't want?" That one was a
lie. She was going to go and call everyone into a secret meeting about it. On
the good side her plan was to try and assuage their collective fears on the
matter.

Cin shook her head.

"No? I'm just going to be
out now, I think. I'm not a threat, and no one here is all that bigoted.
Really,
you're
the worst one that way, and are smart enough to know that
it isn't a personal failing on my part. The rest will be fine." She knew
that one, but Glenda made a face at her.

"You think that I'm a
bigot?" There was a
tone
to her voice. Attitude.

Cindy nodded, making the move big
and adding a smile to it. One she really meant, oddly enough.

"Yup. Not that bad of one,
like I said, but it's there. No huge thing. Most people have something dark
inside they don't want known. You're actually a lot better off that way than
most, so you won't be catching grief about it from me." She'd mentioned
her power, so it would be foolish to hide it now.

The story above the woman's head
started to go over everything she'd ever done that she was ashamed of. Her
dark, violent rape fantasies, the time she ran over the neighbor's dog and then
hid it, not wanting to confront them about it, and the affair that she'd had
about two years into her current relationship.

 In short, nothing that would
really work for blackmail.

Most women had rape fantasies
like that, even if they wouldn't have admitted it. She did too, from time to
time. Not that she wanted to be raped, but the
idea
turned her on. Glenda
was about the same that way. Then she caught on to the idea that Cindy was
reading her mind, or might be, and blushed, which got ignored.

"I'll go and tell everyone
that I'm the hidden Infected, and see if anyone runs screaming? I bet they
don't. It isn't that big of a thing. I'm just not scary." Not outwardly,
which was what would count.

There was a nod then, and
another, smaller, hug. Then the woman opened the doors, only a little worried
about her killing the public when they came in. Then she felt bad about
thinking that, since she'd known Cindy for years, and she was always
good
with people. Better than most, to her estimation.

So she made the rounds, and just
told everyone, which was done by ten. Wally got to go last, since he already
knew, but she
did
it, with a smile on her face.

"So, I'm out and proud now.
Infected. Yes, I know you like me a bit. You're also
very
sweet. Anyone
who can't see that isn't looking. You're one of the best people I've ever
met." She projected her words, and was about to go on, but could see that
a lot of the others there caught the idea. Ben, the other man on shift,
actually didn't care a bit about any of it.

Not even that she could read what
he was thinking. He did kind of want to have sex with her, but that hadn't
changed. He
also
knew that Wallace was Infected, having overheard the
conversation the day before. That was a thing that she'd missed, but oddly
enough his plan was to say
nothing
about it. Not even to either of them.
It was just the way he was. He kept to himself, and if Cindy wanted to know
about him masturbating to elf porn that was fine with him.