The Infected 1: Proxy (43 page)

"Bridget! You look great. Special occasion?"

Prime answered for her, even as she clearly fought to keep from blurting the answer out.

"It's her birthday. Fifteen today." He sounded proud, as if he hadn't expected her to live that long. Then again, maybe he hadn't? When you have a kid that had to fight sticking their finger in the light socket each time they passed it, no matter how many times they got shocked, not expecting much from them or getting too close could make sense. Luckily she was freaking tough.

Brian stood up and hugged the girl.

"Hey! Happy Birthday! Well, I don't have a present for you yet... I get some time off in a few days, we'll get together and do something to celebrate then, a party maybe, if you want?"

Bridget started to squeal and clap her hands, but fought that impulse down quickly and nodded in a very adult manner. She told him very seriously that she'd clear a space on her calendar for it. Then she jumped into his arms and kissed him on the cheek.

"Of all the guys I don't get to sleep with you're my favorite, Brian."

Prime laughed and winked at the table knowingly. Then asked who their guest was.

"Right, sorry, Scott. This is Doctor Jeremy Messerschmidt, currently at Harvard. Material sciences among other things. An old friend of mine who's trying to help with my current endeavor, staying alive and all that." Holding a hand out toward Prime he continued. "Jer, this is Scott Chambers and the lovely young lady beside him is his daughter, Bridget Chambers."

They all shook hands and Bridget started to ask all sorts of questions about where Jeremy and Brian had met, how long they'd known each other, and if he had any funny or embarrassing stories about him to share. Suddenly, an obvious act of self-discipline, she stopped, took a deep breath and suggested that they go to her dad. On impulse she wrote something down on a piece of paper and slid it over to Jeremy, then left dragging a laughing Scott by the hand.

Jason watched the scene with pride and amazement.

"That's... She has to fight for each scrap of control, that she pulled back like that is... incredible. Like a person not pulling their hand out of a fire through force of will. I think I blinked somewhere in there and didn't notice her growing up. So, what's on the paper?" He looked at Jeremy who laughed and showed him. Jason, who sat across the table, slid the napkin across the smooth wood toward the others so that everyone could see. It had a number, presumably for Bridget, and asked him to call with the dirt later. Jason gave the paper back grinning.

After dinner - which was excellent - and before dessert, Karen saw them and came over for her own introduction. She stood with her arm over Brian's shoulder, her small left breast pushing firmly against him, which, he realized, required her to bend over to make happen. Marcia looked at the scene with humor and Jeremy looked amazed.

"So, are you two..." he asked, a slightly impressed look on his face.

Karen looked the scientist right in the eye... and nodded, causing everyone to look at her. "Oh, yes, for over a month now. Don't tell everyone though. It's still new and everything." She leaned in and kissed Brian on the cheek then moved off, telling them she had a magazine interview in half an hour.

Jeremy looked impressed.

"Brian... she's hot, now does she have a sister that thinks scientists are cute?" He chuckled shaking his head slightly as if to negate what he'd just said. Self-depreciating humor.

Becky popped in to view, for Brian at least, wearing a school girl uniform, the type only found in movies, with a plaid skirt far too short for reality and a white blouse with a dark blue vest over it. Looking at the slightly older man, only three years older than himself, Brian realized, she made a considering face, waggled her hand in the air, and checked him out carefully.

"Well, I wouldn't toss him out of bed. I'm not going to any sci-fi conventions though. A hot ex-superhero like me would just get mobbed. Plus the whole alluring ghost thing now... You know how those guys are."

Fighting to keep his face straight, Brian tried to change the subject before Jeremy figured out that Karen had been kidding. Even if it wasn't true, he had so little to impress someone like Jeremy with that he didn't want to ruin it. Jason helped out, asking if Jeremy wanted to see anything else while he was in the facility.

Jeremy blushed but nodded. "Yeah, um, the guys at the lab told me to be on the lookout for any famous people here, superheroes and all that. I told them I didn't know enough about the topic to even look, but that I'd try and remember to check things out if I got a chance. Are there any around here, do you think?"

Brian nodded.

"Be casual, but the guy sitting over there," Brian made a movement with his head to indicate direction, "the one with the mustache and business suit that looks like James Bond? He's the team one leader, Torque. Really cool guy. Saved my life once."

They all looked around for a bit, Jason pointing casually behind them.

"Ooooh, yeah that's a good one if you've got fan boys in your crew. Behind us two tables, sitting with two gentleman, wearing the red dress? Pixie. Also team one."

They played celebrity spotter for about half an hour then Jeremy told them he had to catch his flight back home early the next morning, so needed to get to his airport hotel. They shook hands firmly.

"Jer, thank everyone back at your lab for me will you? This gear... It's nothing short of amazing. If I can learn to use it right, it could help a lot of people eventually. Also, thanks for keeping my oboe. It's a good reminder that not everything from back then was numbers and study without end."

They walked him out to his rental car, a red sedan, and watched as he drove away.

Marcia put an arm around Brian as his friend left and pulled him to her gently.

"You and Karen are dating? The papers are going to love that... The tabloids that is. That's OK, it will help dissuade those gay rumors - Karen's, not yours. No one looks at you and thinks gay. Still... keep us in the loop on things like that. If you two break up it's going to be awkward. We can handle it, but... Yeah. So be careful."

Brian laughed.

"She just said that to make me look good in front of Jer. Which worked too. Remember, the whole time I was in college I couldn't even get a date. Too young for all the girls I knew, so lots of "You're like my little brother" speeches. This way Jeremy won't think I'm a total loser. Nice of her really."

They went in and all started to ride down to floor nine, since Marcia wanted to play with the new knife and demanded that Brian break the oboe out too, claiming musicians to be hot with a sultry chuckle. Brian told her she only thought that because she'd never seen an oboe being played, but promised he'd give it a shot. He used to be good at it after all.

At floor four Becky appeared in the car with them and started yelling at him to get off now. Panic filled the air around them as she did it, an actual feeling in the air.

He hit the button and got out on five, Lauren looking at him strangely as he dove out of the elevator. Dharma paced with him, wearing sweats that said "Team Brian" on the front. She pointed toward Lauren and screamed at him.

"Run! Now! No time. Don't let them touch you! Don't stop running!"

He ran directly at the giant woman, who jumped out of the way smoothly.

Then he felt the tingling start.

Running didn't make a difference. Not at first. Brian ran full out and felt himself struck from behind hard, knocked forward, almost instantly. He rolled and found himself on soft mud, which gave under him. Tightening the move, Brian managed to protect his head and not face plant thanks to the training Carl had him doing. He struggled to his feet and felt what came for him rather than saw it. Them. Six of them at least, cold, dead-looking things, but fast.

Strong too, he realized, running as hard as he could along the bank of the lake, mud dragging at his feet, a brown mud, so not a lot of clay, at least in those spots. He almost laughed, not knowing where that observation had even come from. It probably wouldn't matter long, because the things that chased him were almost on him and new armor or not Brian knew he wouldn't last too long in a fight with them.

The one that caught up to him first probably saved his life. Instead of aiming a blow for his unprotected head, it came at the center of his back, points of pain where the talon like fingernails struck, the force spreading evenly over his body. Being shot by Jason hadn't hurt. This did. He felt himself being flung forward, at least eighty feet, probably more. The armor saved him from the blow, locking him in place as he flew at first.

Brian still blacked out from the force of it.

The water felt cold, shockingly so, as he hit, waking him back up. He started to sink, causing panic for a few seconds thinking the new armor would drag him down. After a bit he kicked a little and went back to the surface, realizing that he only sank because his body fat was a lot lower now than the last time he went swimming two or three years before. At least he knew how to swim, he thought, working to keep his head above water.

Brian turned his attention to the attackers, trying to figure out what he could about them. They were normal-human size and wore varied clothing. They looked alike in a way, long jaws, gray skin, and black fingernails. All of them had a lanky, long-armed body structure that reminded him a little of Tobin from the base - without the smiling and pretty songs. They stood on the bank, not coming in after him. So either they couldn't swim, or they knew something about the water that he didn't. Treading in place, Brian hoped they just didn't like water, because anything that could scare these things would just kill him.

They were similar to one another, but like family members, not clones. All had different hair lengths and some were obviously female. At least one had lost her top somehow and her breasts drooped as if the fat had been sucked out, but she'd definitely been a girl before she became this... whatever it was. All of them just stood, watching him, not moving.

He kept treading water, upright, trying to get a feeling for what he could do. The lake was big but empty, the water deeper than he could stand in, which he found out by standing up and letting himself sink for a bit. The water covered his head easily. He thought he'd gotten at least nine feet down before he'd had to come back up, the pressure hurting his ears. Coming to the surface, Brian noticed that they still hadn't moved. That, he thought, could help him. Maybe he could just wait until dark, swim quietly to the other side and run away from there, while they stood waiting? He'd have to be nearly silent about it, but that could work.

He searched the far side of the lake, checking it out carefully as he bobbed gently in the water. It looked like that plan could really work, there was even a patch of bare bank where he could go to shore without encountering brush. Good, all he had to do now would be keep moving enough so that he didn't succumb to hypothermia.

The water wasn't that cold, not really. No worse at least than what kids would gladly go swimming in on a warm summer day in a lot of places. Still, if he had to stay in it for hours, it would eventually sap the heat away from his body and start to weaken him, making Brian slow and fuzzy mentally. So he needed to keep moving hard enough to stop that from happening, using exertion to keep himself warm.

Well, he figured, running wasn't swimming, but at least he knew his heart wouldn't give out from just a few hours of work anymore. The sky already seemed to be getting dark. Looking up he saw clouds, which could be throwing things off. He didn't know where he was in the world, but the people looked like they wore North American style clothes. Blue jeans and flannel on some, Spandex pants on the woman that had lost her top. That meant he was either in the same time zone or had moved over one, western Canada or the Pacific Northwest then. Maybe. Not places he'd hung out before, but the water felt cool, his fingers going a little numb already, stiff, arms heavy, so someplace north made sense. The trees were green and conifers, which meant his initial guess was probably right enough. Unless he was in the Ukraine or something.

Movement on the water caught his eye, a bit of blue floated on the surface of the water next to him. He turned toward it, ready to fight, knowing that one of these creatures could just drown him without trying if it had come for him. Anything that could hit him over eighty feet like that had to be strong. Marcia had kicked him twenty feet earlier, and he was almost positive she hadn't held back. Fucking hell. Still, Brian reminded himself, he'd come to protect someone, and whoever that was would get everything he could bring, before he died.

Dharma sat on top of the water, not making a ripple in it, wavelets and ripples passing under her. Staring around she held up a finger to her mouth for him to see, telling him not to talk and probably not to make too much noise at all. He held his hands under the water a little deeper, so that he wouldn't splash as he moved.

"Bri, look around, carefully. On the bank..."

Turning slowly in place he saw them, not just the six that still stood watching him, but dozens of them, all around the lake. All standing and waiting for him to come out. Fuck, Brian felt a surge of panic but kept his mouth shut, hoping they wouldn't notice him. Then he realized they already did, all of them staring at him as intently as the first six.

"You'll have to hang out here, Brian. No big, you can tread water and turn your pants into a flotation device. You'll lose your shoes, but I don't think you're going to outrun these guys anyway. Go ahead and kick them off now. Be quiet about it. We don't know what might set these things off..." The dead girl kept looking around, waiting for him to react. He followed her instructions, kicking his shoes off and letting them sink in the water a bit. He hoped they'd stay near the surface so he didn't lose them all together.

He could swim, but didn't have a clue what she meant by turning his pants into a flotation device. Were they magic or something? A built in device no one had ever told him about maybe? Dharma laughed and explained it to him. He needed to take them off, tie the ends together in a knot, put the legs over his head, then trap air in the waist, filling the whole thing up. They had to be kept damp, but they'd hold air that way for a while.

It took her changing her clothes and showing him, but he finally got the idea and did it himself well enough to keep his head above water without too much work. He still had to kick, pretty hard, because to do less meant his body temperature would drop, but if he missed a beat for a few seconds he might not drop below the water instantly.

Becky kept talking to him, telling him stories from her life, about the guys she'd liked mainly.

"For a long time I kind of had a crush on Prime, I mean I was eighteen, so what girl doesn't? I even got him into bed a couple times before he got bored with me. Now I understand that, you know, his first mode kind of means he feels entitled to sleep with anyone he wants and not be too gentle with people's feelings when he gets bored, but at the time it just crushed me. He'd just finished, not caring if I came or not and didn't even wait for me to get my clothes on before telling me he was done with me. Not "Hey, we should see other people" or "This isn't working out" he actually just said "I'm done with you now, go away." Cold, right? I cried myself to sleep for weeks."

As darkness fell she had to remind Brian to keep kicking, and then after a few hours remind him to keep silent, since he kept wanting to answer her out loud. When he forgot and did it, the creatures would moan and howl on the edge of the water, the sound carrying and echoing loudly, sending chills down his spine and fear tightening his bowels whenever it happened. Dharma shuddered a little too each time and shushed him again and again.

The cold had started to really take hold, he kicked, but his legs didn't have any feeling left near the feet. Even if he got out of the water, he didn't think he'd be able to walk for a while. Despair started to break over him, washing in sobbing waves. Brian held on, knowing this feeling pretty well by now, trying not to let it eat at him. Keep kicking he told himself, over and over again. Stay in control. Don't give up. Never again.

"That's it, Brian. Keep going! I'm going to go and try to contact Christian - I should have thought of it earlier - duh, I know. Hold on, I'll be right back!" The girl vanished leaving him alone to kick in the darkness, trying to keep his pants filled with air so that he'd float. He felt hungry already, starved, but at least he had water to drink, the lake being fresh and cold, the water tasting clean when he carefully sipped at it.

After a time, he couldn't tell how long, three sets of howling and moaning when he'd messed up and made noise, Becky returned, sitting on top of the water, wearing a short skirt and skimpy top that exposed her stomach. She had abs, he noticed, and a piercing on the top side of her navel, with a silver barbell in it.

"Good news!" The girl sounded enthused and happy when she spoke. "Christian has an alert out and the lab guys are isolating your position right now. Everyone's coming to find you. I gave them a full update on," her hand waved over the water, the only thing he could see, the sky being too cloudy for stars. "This little thing we have going here. I'm supposed to check in every few hours. They're coming for you, so it's just a matter of time now."

Then she went back to telling him stories, which became increasingly bawdy as she went on.
"So there I was, naked, on Carl's bed, masturbating full out, waiting for him to walk in, really hot and raring to go... You know, figuring, hot girl in bed, naked already, really going to town... every guys dream right? He walks in and looks at me for a full minute, really just staring intently, you know? And I'm thinking, yeah, he's totally into me... Then... he critiqued my technique and kicked me out of his room until I learned to do it right!" She laughed out loud then hung her head in shame.

"I didn't even know he was gay. I was so embarrassed! But he never said anything to anyone and even Chris didn't know until I told her a few days ago. But I carried that for, like, a year at least. I could hardly stand to look him in the eye..." She floated a little into the air and then did a handstand on the surface of the water, hands on the glassy surface, lifting her body easily. Her little short skirt fell around her waist exposing her panties, which were white and very small. On the front of them, the little piece of fabric that kept her current action from being totally indecent, in shining gold letters were the words "You looked!" Brian chuckled weakly, setting off another round of that horrible moaning from the creatures ringing the lake.

Could they hear, he wondered, little sounds over the racket they made? He splashed, while they howled, to see if they'd react to it in any way. They didn't seem to, hard to tell really, but the round of noise this time didn't seem to be any louder or longer than before so far. Becky came back to her feet on the water silently. Being in his head, she obviously understood what he was thinking.

"Right, if they can't hear you, you could use the noise to cover your escape. Except that they kind of have us surrounded. You have to hang on until something happens, then capitalize on it. You can do that, easy. So the water's a little chilly? Big fucking deal, right?" She looked into his eyes, standing over him, her makeup still perfect. He wondered what she'd look like without it, or even with regular girl makeup on. If he got out of this, he'd have to ask her and see if she'd be willing to show him.

"If you get out? If? Dude, you have most of the IPB out looking for you right now! Prime could be here any time to swoop down and pluck you out of the water. Or Soar could do it, have you ever met her? Great gal, except that she likes country music. Team two. Still, she's out looking for you too, Chris said. I need to go and check with her soon, get an update. Do you think you can keep kicking for a few minutes while I'm off having a chat?" She stood and walked away toward the shore, vanishing about half way there. It was just an effect for him, he knew.

Having the ability to get updates helped a lot, just knowing that someone out there actually wanted to look helped him keep going. He felt tired, strength sapped by the cold, but thinking about the others coming for him, that let him keep going. That and the fact that if he died, the person he replaced might too. He felt himself start to sink a little and carefully replaced the air in his float, making sure it was damp, because it wouldn't hold the air in otherwise. Float pants. He'd have never thought of that himself. After a few minutes Brian realized that he'd stopped kicking.

Starting again he rose a little in the water, legs numb, but at least they didn't ache, no exercise burn for once. That was a good thing. He forced himself to keep moving, keep what heat he could being generated. His brain felt slow, stupid and fuzzy.

He nearly fell asleep twice, waiting for Becky to come back and give him some good news. Or bad news. Really, dead girl or imaginary friend, whatever she was, having her here made him feel better, less alone. Of course he wasn't really alone in the dark here, all he had to do to remind himself of that would be to make some noise. Just as he was feeling tempted to, the emo-goth girl came back, dressed in her team Brian sweats.