Hush (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 1) (23 page)

Cindy got the idea, and moved to
do that part, but realized they needed to scrape the things first. That was
done by the garbage being brought over to the stacks, as she wielded a wooden
spatula, scrapping as fast as she could. Bridget grabbed them and washed, then
loaded the machine, almost like it was planned out ahead of time.

When they finished the girl
looked at her.

"I can sleep over? That way
you won't be able to escape, but can have your own bed. That works,
right?" It was baldly stated, about her trying to escape, but Brian nodded
at them both.

His brain was filling in that he
kind of wondered if the girl would let her go, but knew that he really could
find her no matter where she went. The whole thing was safe, as long as they
didn't let Cin go and kill anyone after telling the press it wouldn't happen
again.

"That works. Clear it with
your parents first."

Bridget nodded, but didn't run
off to do that, just standing there, expecting Cin to have a problem with it.
The fact of the matter was that most adults really had kind of wanted her to go
away for the most part. That had been half of why she'd really liked Clark.
Even when they were done having sex he'd been
nice
to her. Her friend.

That she kind of wanted a new one
now was clear. On the good side, she wasn't assuming that Cindy would put out
for her.

She nodded.

"Yes. That works for me. We
can pack up my knife collection. I'm taking that with me. We'll need to dig
that up first." She'd planned to use them all, but now that didn't seem
likely. No one screamed about her being a monster though, which was a good
sign. She
hoped
.

Eventually Impulse wandered off,
and came back a few minutes later, twitching happily.

"Mom and dad are fine with
it. We can't go bar hopping or anything, but I wasn't planning on it anyway. We
leave early, and sleeping on planes is a bad plan. You never know when being
awake will help save your life." Then she smiled, and shook her head.
"Well,
your
life.
I'm
good, no matter what."

That was probably true, so Cindy
nodded. Bridget wasn't all that worried about the idea of planes going down,
and didn't think it was going to happen all that often anyway. They were safer
with her awake however, since she was able to fly people to safety if anything
like that took place.

Not that she was really
considering all of that at once. The data was there, and a part of her, that
was all.

After they tidied, they moved
into the front room, and started to say goodbye for the evening. No one made
too big of a deal of the whole thing, since they were going to see each other
in the morning. Very early. Six in fact, which meant getting up before that by
about two hours. Cin wanted to groan, but no one else did, so she took a
breath, nodded, and moved.

Speaking while she did.

"See you all then." She
wasn't leaving her car forever at the airport, but it didn't matter otherwise.
Her entire life was being left behind. Worse, she had to go and resign from
work. More to the point, she'd have to call in about it.

After coming out like she had and
everything. She could have just quit and no one would have been the wiser.
Then, she couldn't tell the future like that.

No, if she wanted to do that,
she'd need to find a psychic and read all about it... Which would probably only
happen if they were keyed to her somehow. It wasn't like her reading would let
her know anything they didn't on some level. Though at least with Bridget and
Brian they didn't seem to be totally aware of what was going on that way all
the time.

They escaped to her car, with
Bridget already having what she called a ready bag with her. It wasn't just a
change of clothing and a toothbrush either. She had gear in it. A full day of
concentrated food in the bottom, though Cin supposed that they could go back in
and get some of the leftovers, since they were there, and take them along.
Given that Lyn was already wondering what she was going to do with all the
extra food she'd made, there was sense to that.

So she stuck out her tongue.

"Um, Bridget? You forgot the
provisions for later. We need to get some food? I have some, but it isn't
prepared yet."

That got a smile, and bustling,
which took a lot less for the tiny one than it would have for her to do the
same thing. There was a trunk full of food too, not just a big platter. Still,
being watched by several camera people at a distance, they managed to get out
of there after about ten more minutes.

Bridget looked over her shoulder,
twisting around obviously, the seat belt on, being over her throat, but not stopping
her from doing it.

"Bogeys to our six. Possibly
more attackers. I'm going to bail and go see if they shoot rockets at me. That
was fun. I remembered not to breathe the flames in this time." It sounded
like a joke, but it had happened to her several times before, and she really
had done that.

It also hurt her to do that. She
wasn't armored inside, though she healed so fast that it nearly didn't matter,
most of the time.

Cindy smiled and shook her head.

"Channel six.
Not
terrorists that I know of. We could try to lose them, but my bet is they know
my address by now."

Bridget snapped her fingers, and
gave her a grin that seemed to be suddenly pleased.

"I forgot about your nifty
powers. That
is
handy. Plus you aren't going to narc me out to the feds
if you find out I want to get laid or go to a party. At the base we get
Christian. She's not evil, but she
will
sell you out to the man if she
catches on to anything good. Or in your case bad. She won't care that much if
you want to smoke pot, but, you know, she can't help it. You can hide from her
a little bit though if you don't think about anything. I can do that now."

Looking at the road, Cin nodded.

"I know. That was kind of
impressive earlier. Your book, you know how I see your info? It just said
meditation
on your main page. That wouldn't stop me from searching for things, but yeah, I
can't think of anything that would get me to do that. Tell? I really don't care
if you want to do drugs or get busy with a few dozen guys. Or horses. Whatever
floats your boat." She deadpanned it, and Bridget nodded somberly.

"Not that I love horses that
much. I never really saw that one. You know, wanting a pony and all that? I was
always too busy to take care of one, and... Not that reliable as a kid. I would
have probably let a dog starve or get lost. I might handle it now, but back
then? Nope." She was watching out the window, her eyes searching for any
sign of danger, constantly. Doing her job with near total discipline.

"Yeah. I can see that. The
whole impulse thing, right? You kind of have to watch that all the time, don't
you?" Like she did now, even though she didn't want to.

The girl gave a single, slow,
nod.

"I really just want to have
fun. I can't help it if a lot of fun things don't seem right to everyone else
all the time. I mean, I don't see a pile of poop and think that I have to shove
it in my face."

Cindy wrinkled her nose, knowing
she was supposed to do something like that more or less.

"At least there's that! That
sounds gross. I say stick to pie. We have plenty."

She turned around and stared out
the back, seeing the news crew again, most likely. It was too hard to drive and
do that at the same time, so she didn't know for certain. As they pulled into
the driveway, she hoped out, with the car stopped, meaning that Bridget was out
too, instantly. Watching the world in every direction.

Spinning, slowly so she could see
what was there, the super powered girl was acting like a real IPB operative.
The way that she'd been trained, her entire life. Not knowing the plan, Bridget
held her ground, waiting to pick up the cues she needed to follow from the
driver, who, to her mind, was in charge of this part of things.

Cindy smiled.

"I need to open the garage
door. One second?" She just went in, and wondered what would have happened
if she had a back exit to the place. Trying to get out the window wouldn't have
worked for her. That would require breaking the glass, which would make a whole
lot of noise. The best idea then would be to open the thing, and not take too
long getting it done, so she hurried.

That got Bridget to hold her hand
out for the keys, so she could park it, leaving Cin to stand by the door and
get it closed rapidly. Just in case anyone was coming for them. It was cute, so
she tossed her car keys to the kid, who was shocked that she got them without
having to beg. On the great side, she had a real license and everything, and
was actually a decent driver. It was a new thing for her, only about nine
months old now. Like a baby. Only different.

The whole thing worked as if
they'd practiced it, the instructions being given to her pretty clearly. They
still had to walk outside, carrying things since it was a detached garage.
Ideally they would have split the load evenly, but it was going to take more
than one trip to get it all done, no matter how they did it. Since one of them
had the ability to beat up small, or not so small, tank battalions, and the
other could read stuff, the correct thing to do would actually be her, Cindy,
doing all of the heavy lifting, and the girl to stand outside, ready to protect
them.

Not that they were being attacked
right then. Bridget knew that and felt fidgety about the whole thing. She
didn't want to seem lazy, but it really was the best plan, given that they didn't
know what might be happening later. She struggled to figure out how to say it
all, feeling odd suddenly.

Like a bully, for suggesting they
just do what made sense tactically.

Cindy shrugged.

"I'll get the car unloaded,
you stand watch? Maybe get behind the bushes there, so no one can easily see
you?" It had been in her head, if near the back, which got her to sigh.

She didn't want to get her
clothing all messed up, because it was some of her nicer things, but it really
was the smart move.

"Yeah. Let's do that. Give
me ten seconds to get in place, and call out when you're just before the last
load. Then I'll dash over and help carry that in. Ready?" It was both
boring and more fun to do it that way than the normal fashion.

Once inside she started to search
her house, the caution bug catching her. No one was there, of course. Not even
Blackie the cat, since she lived outside. Nodding to herself Cin was glad of
that. The kitten already had a second home, so she wouldn't be lost without her
secondary human buddy being around.

There was no one there,
naturally. It was just the same little place that she'd rented for three years.
It was tidy enough, and not that full of stuff. The way that she'd left it.

Her entire life had been pushed
toward being really good at two things. Books and killing. The rest was all
about that, in some way or the other.

She just worked until the food
was in, or almost, then called out, softly. Really it was just above a whisper,
but her new friend got the picture.

"All right, last load. I'll
take it out and have it ready for you to grab in three... Two..." She
spun, the four pies, in four large containers, being removed just when one
would have been reached, allowing her to slam the trunk and reach into her car
and grab the go bag the girl had brought. Then she actually jogged in. Hurrying
for no real reason.

Once inside, Bridget dashed
around, checking all the doors and the rooms, for the same reason that she had.
It didn't hurt, and again, they were both supposed to do it, each time they
went in anyplace they were going to do more than move through. Even then, they
needed to do it if they could. The only exception came when they had people on
site ahead of time, to protect the zone.

When they were done, the kid
bobbled a bit, standing in place. If anyone could move that much and stay in
place
.

The girl looked around then, and
didn't seem to be put out by the spare furnishings. In fact she just lit on the
television and waved to it.

"Do you have cable?"

Cin nodded, since that was a
normal kind of question really.

"Just the basic package.
Mainly for news and that kind of thing. None of the premium channels."

She shrugged.

"I watch about the same
thing. You'll want to get the number for the company though, so you can cancel.
Otherwise they'll keep trying to charge you. Phone too. Electric... We should
get a list going. Then we can see how bad we look on the news. I hate the stuff
myself, to be honest." She popped the top of one of the containers that
had blueberry pie in it, pulled a slice and started to munch on it. Between
bites she explained, even though Cindy already had read it all. "It's hard
to love hearing about how evil you are all the time. I know, boo-hoo, my life
is so hard, but it still...
Stings
?" The question was simply about
the idea that the red headed pixie didn't know what things really felt like. It
took her work to describe things like that.