Hush (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 1) (28 page)

"Thanksh yoush."

Seeing that, feeling very
uncertain, Hobbs did the same, getting a similar result. Everyone else smiled
about it too.

Then she turned to Burrows, who
had things to say to her.

"I should have this all
mapped out in two days. Then it will take another four to work up the needed
compound. I can explain it all, but the short version is this; we
might
be killing you, but probably aren't. There are dangers, because we're altering
your innate being. If it takes, then your first mode will be gone. That might,
or might not change your behavior. I can't tell you how that will play out. My
guess here is that the drive to kill will go away. At least the part where you
can't control it. From the time we start the treatment, to when the thing
takes, seems to require about three months for the full effects to come into
play."

Cin nodded. After the first
shots, or whatever would be coming, then her days were numbered. The countdown
on her fun times would be running down. On the other hand, there was no way she
was going three months without killing someone. That was just way too long by
far. She might, possibly, make it two and a half months, but that was all she'd
ever done before, and it had been
so
hard.

For the moment she was fine, and
needed a room, so decided to get that done if she could, not wanting to see
what sleeping inside Bridget's closet would really be like.

Rachel patted Sara on the arm,
still looking at her, not concerned with the other things going on.

"Food? We should all
go?"

Hobbs wasn't hungry yet, even if
it wasn't that late. It wasn't lunch time or anything, so he kind of wanted to
get some training in, even if it had to happen while they guarded the new
compound with the gate patrol. They had people on the duty already, but they'd
need to be checked out. It was a thing that their new person could do however,
so that portion was handy.

He spoke, his voice low.

"Nay, as for me. We need to
see toward protecting the base, as is our charge. Lady Bridget, needs you to
have victuals?"

The girl nodded, then made a
face.

"Yes, but I can go drink a
gallon of oil, which will be faster. I'll run do that, and set up a room with
the head office. Hobbs, can you and Cin start on that? I'll send out Tobin and
Den if we can find them..." She just took off, so they all did, with
Burrows taking her arm gently before she got out of the room.

Leaning in the woman spoke, close
to her face.

"You're good with
this?"

So far the treatments had all
worked, more or less, but trying it on a female was different. Probably not
that much so, but she couldn't promise it wouldn't be lethal, or cause her to
grow antlers. Worse, it could make her power go away and leave her with her the
emotional problems, or make those ten times worse.

It probably wouldn't.

Cindy shrugged.

"I really don't get a
choice, do I? Either you do this and it works, or I end up dead. It's kind of
simple. No matter how dangerous, I kind of have to take any chance I can get
right now. So load me up. I can either take it, or not." The words were a
little cold sounding, so she faked a smile, which Burrows got instantly. She
was too good at face reading not to.

There was a cool nod in return,
but the arm was let go. It was all sorts of unethical for the doctor to allow
it to happen, but she had a test subject that only she could really save, for
once. The others had problems, but this one, she had the sword of Damocles hanging
directly over her head. There was only one way for her to get out this, and
that was for Kiko Burrows to save her.

Nothing else would do. Not that
she
loved
the idea of needing anyone else to bail her out.

Cin was kind of ready to wander
around aimlessly, begging for a bit, but Bridget was actually on the ball and
simply called in the instructions as to where Cindy was going to be staying.
She was standing outside the clinic hospital thinking about it as soon as Cin
got outside, though the others were all suddenly gone. Hobbs was off actually
working, and Rachel had taken Sara off to get acquainted, and to eat food,
which was a thing they both seemed to like. It really couldn't hurt for them to
get off on the right foot, or whatever.

Past the idea that it helped her
seem like she had a soul, which wasn't the truth, Cin didn't much care about
the whole thing. It needed to work, but it more or less
would
. The girl
wanted someone to be there for her so badly that she would have taken almost
any line tossed to her. Rachel, for her part, was a good person, and not a
horrible parent. It could fail, but that would take years, since teen Sara
might well be a handful, after her poor early life.

Which wasn't Cin's problem in the
slightest.

Bridget had all the luggage, but
was kind of desperate for food already. Her plan was to simply suck it up and
get Cindy settled first, before seeing to herself. That would let them drop the
bags, and go get something a good bit more real to eat than oil, which she kind
of hated. Not that anyone would bother the kid over doing that. Cin didn't want
to drink a gallon of oil either, so she could understand that one.

That meant they nearly ran to the
apartments, which weren't that really. The rooms were, according to the tale
being spun over the girl's head as they moved, just as small as promised, being
just a little over the dimensions of a standard prison cell. Inside the things
were a bit nicer however, being based on military officer quarters for single
people.

The other places, the ones for
the IPB agents and the people who just worked at the base, were bigger and
nicer than what the Infected got. It sounded like a nice bit of bigotry, but it
was all about economics, not hate. They were getting new buildings for
everyone, but it would be a few years for anything to really come together that
way. This current design was mainly the way it was because the government had
the plans, just sitting around.
That
meant they didn't have to pay for
an architect.

All of that flowed across the
hungry girl's pages, as well as a worry that the door pad wouldn't have been
reset yet. They dashed up three flights of stairs, since the place didn't have
anything as fancy as an elevator. Once there they headed to rooms ten and
twelve, which were side by side. Twelve was her room, it seemed, which she
needed to use first, putting her index finger on the little glowing green pad.

She did it, which got the door to
click open.

She glanced over at Bridget, who
was about to start into a spiel about how the whole thing worked, and that, in
the event of a power outage, the whole building would be left unlocked. That
was a problem if they were ever invaded and had to hide, but the honest truth
was that no one cared what happened to them in that case. They, the Infected,
were supposed to be out fighting if anything like that went wrong.

Cin nodded.

"So, if this coup thing goes
through, just taking the power out, say at night, will leave everyone
vulnerable? Brilliant." The inside of the room was very white. There was
no bedding, just a mattress, and a pillow on an iron bed frame. It was heavy.
Solid in case it had to hold a being many times her size. The mattress was thin
too, being about four inches thick. There was a single chair, at a small, but new
looking, wooden desk. On the good side she had a window, but on the bad the
thing didn't seem to be able to open up without being broken.

In short, she had a cell now. One
that opened to her touch, but it wasn't what she'd left behind by even half.
Bridget knew that, but her own cell, next door, was no nicer. Except that she
had blankets. Those, it seemed, would be delivered, and set on the cot thing
inside. Which meant that housekeeping had the ability to get into anything, at
almost any time.

She had four bags, of which
Bridget was carrying three, so she dropped hers next to the desk, near the
middle of the room. Then she grabbed the ones from the tiny girl.

"This will be fine. We
should go get you some lunch. I..." She was about to say that she hated the
whole thing, and didn't want to be there, but she just didn't have that much of
a choice.

Cin either played ball and
survived it all, or she didn't. It occurred to her that whining about it wasn't
going to win anyone over to her side of things.

In which case she'd die. Most
likely. Even as she spoke, waiting, Bridget wondered if they were going to have
a problem that would end with that taking place, right at that moment. Seeing
that, reading it clearly, Cin faked a smile. Being polite, or seeming to, was a
great way to protect yourself in general.

"I don't really need to eat
yet. I probably won't for a day or so. Should I get with Hobbs, or shadow
you?"

The kid smiled at her, warmly.
The idea that her prisoner was working to get along thrilled her to no end. It
was all way nicer than she'd feared, so far.

"Come with me? I won't take
too long. I need enough calories to keep going, that's all. Then we can find
the boys and see about setting up a real watch for this place. The old one was
better that way, but..." She stopped, and looked at Cindy hard, her face
closing down, as words spilled out over her head. Almost on purpose.

The story was a dark one, where
the IPB was going to be destroyed, so they'd faked their deaths. It was kind of
a known thing, but it had been the government they'd feared, not Braid and her
friends. This new base, while it looked nice enough on the surface, was a
punishment of sorts, for their not dying. It wasn't stated that way, of course.
No, it was given to them as being about money and budget concerns, but Bridget
had heard some things that indicated that Congress had a bone to pick with
them.

As a group.

Not the
Infected
, since
most of the bigots were either already out of politics, or were in hiding now.
Pretending that concentration camps were no longer needed. No, they wanted to
punish the IPB for what they'd done, since it has stolen away some of their
power. Going through that part of things herself after a fashion, Cin kind of
got the idea. No one loved that.

Bridget left suddenly again, her
desire for food growing by the moment. Normally it wasn't that bad, but she'd
actually gotten fewer calories the day before than normal, which had to be made
up for now.

The dining hall reminded her a
little bit of the one from college, on the outside. The building was more tan
brick, and the whole place was clean, but when they got through the large glass
doors the whole thing changed. There was what seemed like a nice restaurant off
to the right, and regular tables on the left, like a high school cafeteria. It
was all in one room, but the place was
huge
.

There weren't that many people
there, but one of them, sitting on the plain side of things, was a large woman
with a heavy brow ridge. She had to be
vast
, since she was about as
large sitting down as Cin was standing. There was a lot of obvious muscle to
her, like a lean power lifter might have. Only her decently large breasts made
up for the whole thing, leaving her blocky seeming, but definitely female.

Bridget saw her and waved, making
big movements to catch attention.

"Olga!" She wanted to
run over, since the woman was her friend, but the need for food got her to move
to the other side.

Cindy however nodded, getting
that they were going to be sitting with the large woman.

"I'll grab a chair before
this place fills up? Or bench space." She was trying to joke about how
empty it was, but Bridget seemed to think that it was a real enough thing. They
were early, but there really would be people soon.

The red head nodded, smiling and
looking over at the food line.

"Cool. Introduce yourself to
Olga. She's second in command for Team Two. So networking and all that? You're
Team Three, if anyone asks about it. That will tell people a lot about you, so
keep that in mind." There was more fidgeting, which was kind of agitated
and hinted at wanting to run toward the energy she desired.

"Got it. Go. I'll be
fine." That the kid, who was a lot older than she looked, was trying to
stay with her, in order to do her job well, was just plain.

When she got to the giant, who
looked like a Neanderthal, if one bigger than the books would have ever shown,
she smiled. The words over the woman's head were clear and neatly typed
looking. Like an old fashioned typewriter had done the work.

"Hi! I'm Cindy? The new kid,
I guess. Can I sit with you?"

The lady blushed, looked down as
if embarrassed, which she was a bit, and then nodded. The story above her was
fascinating though. For one thing, she was from the Soviet Union. The
old
one that had fallen. Her English had improved over the last months of constant
study, but the tiny, very pretty woman, which is how she thought of Cin, left
her feeling ugly. Worse, she expected to be judged over it.

"Yes. Please. Sit?" The
vocabulary was a bit basic, and accented, but very understandable. "You
are not having food? You come with tiny Bridget?"