Infected 8: Impulse: A Whole New Day (11 page)

A woman that looked to be some kind of medic was the one that told her about the gun fight. More to the point, she told Doug, who she actually recognized, at least by his code name. Not until after she went on about the old man that had fought the police, not wanting to leave his home. They were saying he was Infected, but other than fighting instead of just going along with them, it didn't sound like he showed any sort of power.

"Wait! You're
Gravity
! From the IPB. We were told that everyone on the base out there had died. How did you survive? We need to tell our commander. I, they'll want to question you!"

A few of the other soldiers turned and one, an older fellow, walked over, his face excited. He was smart however and didn't try to grab her friend, or anything that silly.

"That sounds about right. You could come with us?" He asked at least, and Doug looked at Bridget, who was manning the donut counter.

The whole thing could have gone very wrong, but she smiled and danced forward.

"He was with me, out on a training mission. We haven't been able to find out much, so we came here, since Mary knows us and let us stay. It would be best if we didn't leave with you, since, you get the idea, the military might have been behind this. I'm not trying to start anything or point fingers, but if you killed my friends, it's
going
to be an issue." Her voice cracked at the end and a real tear came to her eye. Why, she wasn't really certain, but it looked right and the man looked grim, rather than like he wanted to start a dick measuring contest.

She really was sad, given that her only home had been destroyed that day.

It showed, and the man didn't seem inclined to fight about it. That probably meant he was the smartest man in the military and should get several promotions before the world ended.

"I understand, miss. Would it be all right if we send some people around to get a statement? I could do the first one of those, if you want? That way you won't have to leave. As far as I know
we
weren't behind this. Not that anyone mentioned to me. We really don't want a fight, if we can help it."

That made sense to her, so she nodded. It would work better to have this guy do the first bit of paperwork anyway. It wouldn't be enough, which he seemed to know, but he wasn't a pro, she was willing to bet. Not at that kind of thing. For instance, she was willing to guess that he wouldn't even separate them or anything, meaning they could get their story straight without too much practice. Just by listening to whoever went first.

Sounding tired and sad, she nodded.

"We should hang here for a bit. So we can work. People need to get their snacks, and Mary is needed in the back, since
I
can't make the donuts. We're going to run out at this pace. We... Should keep the troops fed and happy, since, you know, they had a hard day too."

The man was, oddly enough, pretty good with that idea. He didn't even insist that they talk to him while they worked, just buying his own bit of chow, and a twenty ounce bottle of orange soft drink, then moved outside to wait for things to clear a bit. That took a while, since it seemed that going to the donut shop, with its tiny country style convenience store in the front, was the
only
thing that the Army was allowed to do that night. They paid full price too, meaning that Mary made a lot more that evening than she would have in a normal week. As time went on, more men and women came. Making the number closer to six hundred, she thought. All carrying rifles, a few with hand guns too, but no one coming in with anything powerful enough to worry her. Doug either, but that was down to the fact that he was so busy behind the register that he didn't have time for things like that. Emotions didn't show on his face, as far as she could tell. If he felt something more, inside, he was keeping it there perfectly. Probably too much so, given that all his close friends were supposed to have died earlier that day.

They didn't talk to each other, but at about nine-thirty there was a lull, so she shrugged and waved for him to follow her outside. He really didn't look very upset or even worried. That was a bit off, she realized. He wasn't afraid of the military man that waited for them, holding a pad of paper and a pen now, but he
should
have been worried about their friends. Their lost home...
Something
.

So she went first, as a distraction, walking up to the soldier, who was a major she thought, judging by the insignia he wore, and spoke quickly, to steer Doug to the right idea.

"We haven't been in contact with our people. Is... My parents were there, did they escape? I... I mean, my dad's freaking
Prime
. I... Mom, she didn't make it, did she?" She managed to look pretty bad, she bet, washed out and like it had been weighing on her. That was just the way she looked without makeup on. Washing up earlier had removed all that she'd had, thankfully. She'd have looked really funny otherwise.

The man, Major Cambrin, looked at her and then shook his head, slowly, letting them know that things were bad.

"We don't have the final word, but I won't lie, there's just a hole out there. Not radioactive, but nothing is left but glass. If they were there, I don't know how they could have gotten away. Not even Argos could outrun something like that. I'm sorry." He sounded it, and then stiffened, as if he expected Bridget to do anything other than cry? Like his butt might be killed, because she was angry at the news.

Instead she hugged Doug, and bit her bottom lip. It wasn't too hard to let her eyes water, and a single tear to escape.

"Crap... That... We thought that was the case. We haven't heard from anyone. What are we going to do? I... It's just us left, isn't it? Some of the people in the field offices. If they went to protocols-" She looked at Doug, who shook his head, not getting that one, but she was on a roll.

They were "caught", but that was down to them not fleeing like they
should
have. Really, it would sell the story even better, because her people wouldn't have left impulsive little her out of things, would they? Doug either. That meant, or should mean to the world, that the IPB had just been totally destroyed. Except for her, and a few people in the field.

Who had already run for it. That was the official plan, so she explained it, as if it were a rule. They weren't deserters, just following orders.

"The people who were off base will have headed out, if they could. Not all of them, but that was the
rule
. If anything like this happened we were to assume that the IPB was disbanded and head for the hills. People who were on cases would still hang with them, probably. We all know that the job could mean that. If you're the only line of defense left, you finish it and protect people, even if it means dying later. Protocols... We should have too, but... Well, I was hoping that some of the people might make it. Dad and Lauren..." She stopped and looked at the man, who seemed thin, tired, and in need of a second shave for the day. He had bags under his eyes, the kind that never left, and was tan, but a bit gray in color. His hair was brown, and whatever his day job was, he managed
not
to be an a-hole to a little girl whose family and friends were all dead. Infected or not, he managed to pat her arm gently.

"We'll get the word out. I should write that down. I know this is hard, but what were you two doing that had you off base?"

She shrugged, and then sighed.

"We were on a camping trip. The goal was to run a hundred mile loop without being seen. We were on the way back into town here, about halfway back to the base, when the explosions took place. There were some little ones first, and then the big thing."

Doug looked away, seeming grim.

"It was
huge
. I can still see it. I... mean it's burned into my eyes. Even when I close them, it's there. A bright spot that won't go away. I was looking at it when it happened. More or less. So, after that we ran around the town and into Charity, who had been at school, I think. Her dad's out of town, so we brought her with us. Mary took us in. We heard shooting earlier, but given everything we couldn't trust that it wasn't you guys trying to come for us." He looked back at the groups of soldiers sitting up against the building in the parking lot, which was filled with troop transports. They weren't camping there after all, so needed some way to get around. "We'd been warned, the IPB had. By a member of Delta Force. They've been working on ways to attack us for a while. It doesn't make sense, because we're all on the same side, but who else could do
this
? I mean, that wasn't a training accident. Someone meant to kill us all. It wasn't some stupid militia group either. If we'd been there, Bridget and me..."

The man nodded. Then he wrote, and asked questions for a long time.

"Again, I'm really sorry about all this. This is a tragedy. A fucking disaster. I wish I had some better news for you two about it. I'll pass this along, and you'll probably need to do it again, in the morning. If you need anything, be sure to let me know. I'll make sure to pass the word to tell you if we find anything." That didn't sound good, but it was about all the man could say, wasn't it?

She nodded, and patted Doug on the shoulder, trying to reassure him. It was what she'd have done if their world had really fallen apart, so it would seem right. She hoped at least. The honest truth was, if the base had been hit like that and her family had
really
died instead of running off to hide, she would have killed people. Probably all of the military in the town, to start. That, and the whole police department. She was still going to take out the Chief if she got the chance and could manage it without being caught.

Some people needed to die, after all.

War was a great time to make sure that happened too, wasn't it?

The Major left with the last truck, and Mary closed the store down for the night. The power was still on, which made sense, given that nothing in the town had been disrupted too much that way. Bridget had made certain of that, since she'd gone in as a distraction, not just to make innocent lives harder.

Then, were most regular people innocent? They were the ones that called for her death, weren't they? True, out of fear and ignorance, but that didn't mean she had to like them. Some were better than others, she knew. Like Cambrin there. Whatever he truly thought about Infected people, he'd been polite and professional the whole time. Most of the military people had been. Even the surly ones were more worried about possible fighting or attacks than they were about her or Doug. How that had happened she didn't know. After all, the Army had a lot of haters in it.

At least they had, before the attack on D.C. it was just possible that a lot of that type had been pulled from the ranks already. If they were still there, they might just be smart enough to keep their mouths closed on the topic. That last one was a lot worse for her, she realized, since it was loads harder to fight smart people than morons. They were more likely to bide their time and make sure that their actions were effective. Doing things like taking out the base with a nuke, or other large bomb that had been brought in.

Impulse fought a smile as she and Doug walked around the tiny shop portion, pulling things to the front of the shelves and making sure that what they could stock the shelves with from the back got out. There wasn't a lot left in the storeroom, and what they had was mainly soda, since that was one of the big things that normally sold at Mary's. That, coffee and donuts.

Some of these guys needed things like razors and Band-Aids, which were totally gone already.

It wasn't until about half an hour later, with everyone helping to tidy and sweep for the next day, that the older woman grimaced, and waved to her.

"Bridget... I..." She seemed hesitant, and like there was something so dark inside her that she didn't want to mention it, but
had
too. Bridget thought she understood why that was.

Brian. If Ed and Deidre left and Liz went along with them, then he was probably going to die pretty quick. Almost every day he had to go and fight, sometimes three or four times, against all sort of people, including Infected. That meant he got hurt, about half the time. It added up, and no matter how tough you were, a broken arm or leg slowed you down.

So, it was clear that Braid intended for him to be worn down and die. If that happened, she probably won outright, and the world would fall into a giant battle between a few thousand of the strongest Infected and the normal people. Not
just
the military, which would drive the death toll up to unimaginable levels. Worse, if what she'd heard was right, it was the very people that feared that kind of thing most, the fringe militias and ultra-right conservatives, that would end up forcing it to happen. Their fear was being used to control their actions, by a being that didn't have their best interests in mind.

Just their deaths.

She waited, for once, her impulsiveness getting her to be silent, which worked. It was a bit like freezing, she bet, having never really experienced that before. She didn't know what to do, so instead of just picking something or being distracted, she did nothing. It was kind of nice, and in this case, got the woman in front of her to go ahead, saying something that was a lot different than she would have imagined.

"I believe we need to keep the situation with the Elcampayns silent for the time being. We cannot allow their needs to jeopardize the lives of so many. Or my mate. It is perhaps best if we simply pass the children to their captors, when Zevron arrives. It leaves my heart sore, but all other options do as well. What say you on this matter?"

She blinked, since leaving the kids to be horribly tortured, with Ed being cut into little cubes so that his energy production could be used around his home world, hadn't really been on the table, to her mind. Taken apart a bit at a time, so that he could be coaxed to regrow the flesh, hurt over and again for decades, or longer.