The Infected (Book 9): Proxy: War Day

by P. S. Power

  There was a moment where nothing happened, but then the man spoke, his voice a bit more relaxed.

  "Oh, that. No, I'm fine. I was handcuffed, and it was frightening, but no one hurt me. They said that Proxy came and told them I was all right?"

  "Yeah. Thankfully I got there at the right time. I don't have control over that kind of thing. Well, cool. Glad to hear it wasn't too bad. If you have any questions, or need anything, let me know? Let me... get you the number here. It's the IPB base, but you can ask for me or talk to anyone here, if you need something."

  "Really? But that's the IPB..."

  Brian tried to make his voice sound pleasant. It worked better than the other way, for most things.

  "Right. The Infected Protection Bureau. People always seem to forget what that really means. Thanks for talking to me. Again, if there are any issues around this, or you just need help, be sure to let us know."

  Then he hung up. For some reason, it felt like the right thing to do.

  So did running. As fast as he could toward the door in the front. Just as he got to it, with it still closed, almost without warning, a massive shock of power ran through him. A twisting in space that ripped him into a purple and black world. He'd seen and felt that kind of thing enough to get the idea.

  He was going somewhere, it was clear, but it wasn't his power making it happen. No, this was Tesseract. Again. Brian had been close enough to the feel of that sort of thing to be able to tell the difference now. Something was wrong though. Out of place, or possibly, time.

  For one thing, the world itself went dark, and he couldn't see anything, even as he felt a rush of cold air against his skin. His bare flesh. Wherever he's landed, the place was cool inside, and damp. Like a cellar in winter. Reaching down he patted his own middle, to find what he already knew was there. Hard abs, and bare flesh.

  "Well, crud." The jerk had stolen his clothing? That was a pervy thing to do.

  Including his armor and knife. Even his shoes. Brian felt his feet begin to chill, but couldn't see anything. The dark was more than he was used to encountering. A deep thing that precluded all vision. For a moment he wondered if Tess had taken his eyes too, somehow, but when he patted at them they were still there, and there was no pain, which was a good sign.

  "So now what?"

  He didn't wait, since this time he wasn't shackled hand and foot, was he? Putting both hands out he slowly walked forward, taking one slow and controlled step at a time, even as fear cut through his soul.

  It was a bit too close to what the cops in Vancouver had done to him. This time the vulnerability wasn't about him being tied up and beaten, true. Taking away his clothing was meant to do the same thing, he bet. Tesseract was insane and following a woman that wanted to kill more people than anyone ever had on their world, but that didn't mean he was a moron. This was being done on purpose.

  Trying to make him lose control of himself. To feel weak, and afraid. It was working too. For a moment he wondered if it were actually a different reality, with no walls at all, but two steps away he found it. What seemed to be concrete, painted to make it smooth. There were some lines, ridges really, under his fingers when he ran his fingers down it. Then he tried to reach upward, examining the place he was in to the best of his ability. Even jumping as hard as he could, there was no ceiling in reach. Taking a step to the side, he tried it again, just in case there was a door. Even a window or hole would work for him. There was nothing.

  Not even an air vent, as far as he could tell. If that was the case, then it was meant to be his coffin. Taking it one small step at a time, he ran into a wall after a moment. This wasn't some huge place, it seemed. Less than two minutes later he'd examined the whole thing all the way around. Then got on all fours and did the same with the floor, hoping there was something there. A trap door for instance, would have been nice, about then. It felt smooth though, and didn't even have a drain in it. Concrete again.

  For over an hour he tried to find something that would give him an edge in this place, but it wasn't there. There was simply nothing but a solid box. He even tried to kick the walls, in case there was give to them. It didn't do anything but make his feet ache.

  So, Brian mused to himself, this is how I die.

  Alone, which had always been his presumption on the topic, even before he'd popped Infected, and naked. That part was novel to him. Who would have stripped him like that? Well, Tesseract, it seemed. Trying to leave him helpless, to perish without hope.

  It made good sense, really.

  Every time they'd met before, Brian had used the man's own powers to thwart him. His ability to bend space and time was a thing that Proxy's power could understand, and he was getting better at it over time. So the man had figured out a way to end their game, by picking him up and dropping him before there was time to react or figure anything out.

  "Freaking clever. Well, let's see what I can do about this then?" Instead of just giving up. He might be scared, or even dead already, but his power was all about moving from one place to another. True, that normally had him trading places with another person, but he had teleported for real. Once. That meant he could do it again.

  The big issue there was that he didn't have control over his power. It just kind of did what it wanted. Or, more to the point, he could kind of talk to himself, and get his subconscious mind to help him out, from time to time, or had a few times. That was the first thing he worked on, but nothing happened as he sat there, his butt getting cold on the stone floor.

  "Seriously? No help at all? If we don't get out of here, we'll probably die soon. I don't know if there's any fresh air coming in... Think of all those people you can't help, if you die today. If we die. So, like you did before. Build up energy, and take us back to the base. Come on now... go!"

  Nothing except a vague sense of pushing took place. The wrong kind too. It felt a bit like... Annoyance. Coming from inside himself.

  Why would that be though? Was he missing something? His inner self seemed to think so, but he couldn't grasp the reason why. That got him to go over the box he was in again, as the feeling grew. It was the same, even when he tried climbing in the corners, and jumping up in the middle of the place. It was both taller than he could go, and empty. Not huge though. About ten by ten, if the map he made in his head was right. He could feel the walls, in his mind. After a bit he started to nearly see them, glowing a light, if imaginary, blue.

  That wasn't real, just something he was doing, instead of hallucinating.

  The annoyance from inside himself turned to frustration. It hammered at him for about an hour or so, as he tried to talk himself into going someplace else. Even if he had to fight, naked and unarmed, it would be better than dying there.

  Finally he growled, his voice low and harsh.

  "Okay, self, what the fuck? Why not get out of here? Is something stopping you or what? It's like I'm supposed to do something, but I don't know what it is. Is there something I'm missing? I don't control this power, you know that. You do!"

  That... wasn't really true though, was it? At least his inner mind wasn't a different person than he was. Was it? His power wasn't divided between Brian, the conscious self, and Proxy, the unconscious. He was one single person. Proxy was just what others called him, as a nickname. There was nothing wrong with that, but it didn't change who he was.

  So, what did that mean? He could sense that he was right, but his power had never really been something he had mastery over before, had it? How would he even do that?

  Could he?

  "Yeah. I can. Think Brian. When you've fought Tesseract, each time, you could see the parts of space that he moved in. Why?" That was a thing he'd asked before, and the answer was the same, each time. "Because Tess was influencing the environment, making the pattern stronger. Visible to you. Not warping you..."

  So, what did that mean? Tesseract wasn't helpfully doing anything at the moment except, possibly, using cameras to check Brian for shrinkage. That idea was a bit ann
oying too, but he couldn't prove it wasn't happening. Did it help though? Could knowing what Tess had done get him out of there?

  He sat again, and looked at the walls in his mind. They weren't real, but that just meant he could fold and shape them, right? Push them into the same configuration that he'd noticed the Master of Space and Time using, when they'd fought before. It was hard to remember, since his brain didn't want to work that way at first, but after a while he thought he could kind of see it happening.

  At every ninety degree angle from whatever perspective he took, there was a bend in space. It was warped, and moved as he did. Standing up, he turned, watching the thing in his mind reshape as he slowly spun.

  Touching the wall...

  It was totally flat and normal. Of course. That caused him to lose track of the vision in his head. He nearly gave up then, but remembered what his buddy Becky had once said to him. Words of wisdom and power.

  "Don't be a little bitch-man." That got him to smile, and start over.

  He wasn't a regular person, and had teleported before. He knew what part of it was like, didn't he? What happened each time he went someplace?

  Focusing, he made himself see the bends in space again, but this time tried to imagine a sense of power building inside him. The tingling and buzzing that let him bend space around himself. It took a while for it to start, but after a bit he thought he had it. That, or the hallucinations were becoming really good, standing there, alone in the pitch black.

  It took a bit for him to get the courage to reach out again, his right hand reaching into the bend next to him. Fearing that he'd hit the wall again. Except it wasn't there. Smiling, he started to step into the rift, but stopped, his subconscious mind screaming at him not to do it.

  Why though?

  "Duh, you don't have any place to go yet. There's nothing next to you." It was so obvious he nearly wanted to kick himself. What he had to do then was find a place to be, other than here. Or pick one. Bend space enough that when he moved into it, he ended up in a place, rather than just a bendy spot.

  He nearly chose to go to the base, back to where he started, but for some reason didn't. There were a lot of people there, and he was naked. That was kind of embarrassing. Plus, Tesseract had his armor. That was enough to induce a bit of panic, which made him lose the mindset he needed.

  Talk about annoying.

  "Again, young padowan." So the Star Wars reference was from the bad set of movies, but it did get him to focus enough that he felt the bends and warps come back, and the energy he needed to travel through them. Seeing them, if only inside.

  So, instead of going where he'd been, he went to his room in Colorado. A place with a door, that hopefully still had his clothing in it. He could feel the place, but not see it, even as he stepped into the right spot.

  Of course, as he expected, nearly crippling pain shook him when he got there, making him nearly go to his knees.

  "Fuck..." This came out in a gasp, but at least there was light here, and after he caught his breath, about ten seconds later, he could see that it was real. He touched things for a bit, making sure he wasn't just having a vision. That could happen in the dark. It wasn't bright, since there was no window in the place, but there was the glow from the digital clock on the nightstand. A blue glow. It let him get to the wall and find the switch, which...

  Was a mistake. He had to stifle a scream, as his eyes started to water from the brilliance. He'd been in the dark for too long, it seemed.

  Smiling he didn't stop, going to the little four drawer dresser, and digging out some underwear, socks, blue jeans and a black t-shirt. Dressing while he waited for his eyes to become normal again. There was no closet, but he did have a pair of running shoes in a little box next to the dresser, which he slipped on and tied, before heading out into the hallway. There was no one around, which could mean a lot of different things. People didn't always hang out in their rooms during the day, and fewer stood in the hallway. There was very little reason to, even if it was a nice looking space. Made to look like a hunting lodge, with a lot of polished wood on the walls, hardwood floors, and a soft scent of pine through the whole place.

  It wasn't until he got to the first floor that he saw anyone. The first person that noticed him walked over, looking a bit baffled to see him.

  Lancaster. The large ex-agent lifted a hand to him, waving.

  "Brian. I wasn't expecting to see you this soon. What's the situation?"

  Because of course there was a problem. He was involved in it, wasn't he? It wasn't a fun thing to realize, but Brian knew it was pretty much the truth. So he grinned and waved back.

  "Tesseract kidnapped me from the base, and left me in a concrete cell. The fucktard also stole my armor and knife. I understand the idea, but really, that doesn't mean it wasn't a douche move, if a good one."

  The big man looked hard for a second, and then shook his head a little.

  "I can see how that would work. Just let you grind yourself down or get unlucky enough to die. Did he let you go, or did you trade with someone from here?"

  "Neither. I had to work out how to control my power and teleport on purpose. On the good side, I think I can do it again now. I need to practice that. On the bad, it hurts like hell. I came here... Well, because I was naked, and going back to the base that way is just a bit too embarrassing."

  Still he needed to get back, when he could. He could feel that it would take a bit for him to recharge, just like it had the first time he'd done it, to save a baby in Florida. That had taken about a full day for him to get back to something like normal, he thought.

  Except that... After that, the next thing he'd done involved time travel. That had wiped him out for months, but it was pretty clear that him not going anywhere instantly hadn't been about the energy to do it alone.

  The truth was, he had no real clue how long it would take for him to recover enough to try it again. It was possible he could go and do it right then. He wouldn't know without trying.

  Lancaster shook his head a little, then waved down the hallway.

  "We should report this." Turning he marched away, as if it made any kind of sense whatsoever to go and officially report.

  "You aren't the boss of me." He grinned, and kept his voice playful, which got Lancaster to give him a grin that held something that was rare for the man. Real humor. Not that it had been that funny.

  "True, but you should at least let us know what's going on. It's not like we get daily phone calls from home."

  That was a point. A good one too. Everyone would want to know what was going on and the news only told them so much.

  They hurried to the front room on the first floor, to find that about half the people at the base were there, talking or watching television. It was the news, but seemed to be handling the story of a young girl that had been kidnapped.

  She was about fourteen, blonde and pretty, so of course that was the case. They seldom covered the Infected girls that vanished, did they? Then again, they didn't go on about the homely ones either, or the boys that went missing in the main. Not with any kind of wall to wall coverage like this looked like.

  The picture still called to him. This was a little girl. A person who needed his help. Maybe not one that was about to die at the moment, but she was in real trouble. He couldn't be certain, but he thought she might well be raped again soon. That part was troubling, since the again portion was very strong. Blinking, he felt her strongly enough that he almost heard the crying physically.

  Because that was normal?

  Only, it really might be. Brian didn't know what it was like, being in control of his abilities, did he? Now that he'd done it on purpose, maybe he was integrating his personality a little more? If that was the case, then he should do something to help the kid on the screen.

  Cindy. Cindy Gibson.

  That was what he was thinking when someone huge picked him up from behind.

  "Brian!" The arms were hard and muscular, but he was being held
against a woman's chest. Instead of struggling, or fighting instantly, he made himself smile and look at the rather rough face behind him. Olga.

  "Hey you!" She set him down, but seemed surprised when he turned and gave her a hug. "How are you doing?"

  "I fine. Good. Not much to do here. I train. Team train." Her English was getting better, he realized. The giant dark haired woman looked a little like a Neanderthal, but she was always sweet. He wasn't certain, but he thought her first mode was embarrassment of some kind. Not about holding him in public however, since she was acting like he was her returning boyfriend. It was better than being ignored at least, so he didn't make her let him go.

  Karen did that, by trying to join their embrace. That got him released by one woman, as the other took over, but reached out to include Olga too.

  "Why are you here? Is everything all right?"

  He shrugged.

  "Kind of. Tesseract stole my armor and knife, I learned to teleport... So you know, ordinary day. I just hope that Jeremy and his lab buddies are willing to hook me up with another set of things. Where's Becky? I might have to sell her cute little ghost butt to them for a while to get them to make the trade." He was joking, but the girl herself appeared, then pushed him on the shoulder.

  Not hard, but it was a real enough contact that he winked at her.

  "See? Just like that, only with those guys, and you know, in the right places. You were the one that told me that they'd all crave your hot ghost-girl flesh... er... Ectoplasm?"

  She laughed, rather than taking a turn slapping him for being a sexist a-hole. That was the kind of relationship they had though. Except for the part where it was him making the joke this time.

  "Fine, be that way. Sell me for your own gain. I see how you are." She hugged him too, then demanded an update. It took a bit, and others gathered around, but after about six minutes, he pointed to the television screen.

  "Right now... I don't know if I can do it, but I think, maybe, I can go and get that girl. She isn't about to die right now, but... It isn't good where she is."