by P. S. Power
Rushing in headlong could be her fall back plan.
The area over to the woods was clear enough. There was still occasional shooting going on, but it had stayed in place after the first move. Someone had taken a building, she bet, and the police were trying to surround it. That meant whoever was in there had a reason to be. Probably that they were Infected, and it was visible all the time. An ugly, or someone who was set off by all the explosions, who had started glowing or something. That could happen. Not that she'd thought about it before.
Most Infected were, when you got down to it, handicapped. They had crippling emotional disorders, and most of the time were gifted with abilities that didn't actually make it an even trade. Her impulsiveness was a constant trial for her, for instance. She got the good powers though. About eighty percent of infected people were class ones. That meant that their powers made them about as good in a fight as they would have been without them. Like Charity and her empathy. Unless she could get a good enough read on someone to know what they might do next. In that case she was probably a class two. Chances were that wasn't the case though.
So if some poor schmuck was stuck lightly glowing, and the police saw them, they'd have very little choice but to fight, if they could. It might explain the gunfire that was going on.
She found herself starting to move that way, to go and help the mythical person that she'd made up, but Bridget got herself to pause. It was harder than it should have been, guilt at causing part of the day's events wearing away her resolve. It was true that some old glowing man might die that day because of her, but if she abandoned her post, the four with her might die too. She had a job to do, and even if it was hard, she had to pick her people over the ones she didn't know. It was what you did.
So, she jogged into the woods, which were a little thin on the ground in this section, except for some undergrowth that might add enough cover for them to hide in, if they went carefully. She listened, and then sniffed the air, getting hit with a lot of things that shouldn't have been there. The scent of burning, mainly. From the base and the bombs that she'd set off. Some scared animals too. One of them, a dog, was deep in the bush in front of her. She could hear the jingle of a collar as it shook. Hopefully it would be all right there. Hiding.
The kids hadn't been as smart as all that, when she returned, a minute later, her feet barely making any noise as she ran. Being that she didn't weigh that much, it made sense. She could slam into the ground hard, when she sprinted, but otherwise she tended to move in a quick and very smooth fashion. Deidre was the only one of them that had moved back, away from the empty street.
Probably because the rest of them were too stupid to not get themselves killed.
"Come on. This way. It looks clear, but that can change, so go where I tell you to." It was a bit harsh, saying it that way, but only Ed seemed to mind. To him taking orders from a woman was going to be hard, she thought. Will just ran to her, and then stopped, looking around carefully, as if that would help anything.
He was trying though, and she was willing to give him extra points for that. To make sure he knew she appreciated him, she patted his back. Or tried to. She actually hit his butt. It was nice and firm, for a civilian.
"Sorry, I'm short, I was aiming higher than that."
"Yeah. Likely story." It wasn't very flirtatious. Worse, he looked around and then waved for Charity to come over.
Dismissing her instantly. Well, that could happen, she reflected. Her job wasn't to get a date anyway. Not at that moment. No, she had to get them all going. It took a lot more effort to get that to happen than she would have thought it would. It wasn't that they were dumb, just that they didn't know what anything she said or did meant. For instance, when she held up her right fist to get them to stop, no one else did it. They all should have, to signal that they knew what the orders were.
It was very nearly like they'd never practiced this stuff at all. They did stop however, to look at her. They were really too close together, but she didn't correct that problem yet. If they were hit by a grenade, or other explosive, then she'd probably be fine and the others would be dead. That was all. At least they didn't insist on trying to sing while they went through the woods.
That would have made her mad. As it was, she felt a little frustrated with them all anyway. Through the trees, not that far away, toward the police station, there was a line of tanks and soldiers already. Not a lot of them, being about ten men and two vehicles, but it meant they needed to move to the far side of the woods, and get low. Crawling on their stomachs, using the bushes for cover.
She made all the right hand gestures, but everyone just looked at her as if she were trying to play charades. Worse, they were losing.
"Fine," She hissed, looking at them one by one. It looked like she'd have to use her words, even if it was a poor time for it. "We have a military presence to the right. We need to move behind the shrubs to the left and then get low. I mean, belly to the dirt. They could be on our side, but I'm not willing to bet on that, yet. I sort of doubt that anyone is going to be sending help in for us. Lancaster and Tibs will have pulled back, as soon as the military came. It was part of the plan. The Army guys are still alive, so they weren't seen. They'll meet up with us outside of town then. Away from the base." That made her feel good to say, since it was actually part of the plan. Lancaster had insisted that she learn five fall back points and their correct order. The first one was down, so she'd head to the second, then, if that was compromised, move even further away, to the third, and so on.
If none of them worked, she was on her own, and instructed to head into Canada. Then... Well, she'd need to start a life of crime. She'd starve to death, otherwise.
Speaking of which, her stomach picked that very moment to complain at her. Loudly.
She chuckled.
"If anyone notices a store on the way out, signal me. Let's move. This is going to take a while."
Crawling away always did, or so she'd heard tell.
Chapter two
It had been funny when Will pointed to the little shop next to the gas station, and he clearly meant it to be. Sure, they were hiding in the woods, trying to get around the growing number of troops that the town suddenly had, but he took time to be a wise ass. Pointing out where she could get some snacks. That was a thing that Impulse had to respect. Especially since they all reeked of fear and stress.
Except for her.
It was pretty much that she simply didn't have anything to really be afraid of in the situation. Well, except that the people she was busily escorting might end up being caught. If she'd been alone, she would have gone into the place the tall and decently fit looking boy was pointing to. Even if it meant fighting her way out against a horde of equally hungry military men, the idea of stuffing her face with shelves full of snack treats sounded heavenly at the moment. Her tummy had stopped grumbling a while back, and had moved all the way into simply hate stabbing her with cramping.
Luckily she wasn't working very hard at the moment. If she'd been running at top speed, or fighting full out, it would have been a lot more intense. Eventually, or at least the theory went, if she didn't eat enough, she'd die. True, everyone else had that problem too, but the doc's back at the old base had told her that she wouldn't make it three days without food, unlike regular people. That meant the call of that little store was powerful for her. In fact, she nearly got up and dashed over, and would have...
If she weren't the one in charge at the moment.
Grinning, and trying to fight the urge to be a moron, she nodded, showing Will that she got that he'd motioned to the place, doing what she'd said. She really wanted to keep that idea going. Even better, she noticed that there were five soldiers inside of it, illegally looting the place for their own snacking pleasure. That was a war crime. It pissed her off a little, seeing that. Not that she would have been morally better than they were, if she'd been the thief, but at least she had a real reason to do it. These jerks were just eating
her lunch. Right there in front of her.
Gesturing, trying not to seem pissed off about it, she got them all heading out again. They were mainly ducking, which was a lot faster than trying to get them to crawl the distance. It was about a mile and a half to the end of the woods, or, more exactly, to the end of town. There was dense growth past that, if in patches that had been planted by someone a while back. They were open to being seen as they walked, trying to seem calm and relaxed, strolling right down the sidewalk near the end. There was no cover in the area, for a good while, not there. The woods they wanted to get too were about five miles past that, but once they cleared the area, none of the military amassing seemed all that concerned about a bunch of kids.
Not even guilty seeming ones.
The trick there, she realized, was letting Will and Charity do the talking for them when they were stopped, while pretending to be a lot younger than she actually was. Famous or not, none of the men in green camo noticed her all that much. They were busily looking at Charity and Deidre the whole time.
Because the taller girls looked to be nearly in the dating age range of the young men that were there. It wasn't really true, unless they wanted to break some moral codes, but it still looked about right.
The man that stopped them pretended to be stern. Scared and a bit like he wanted to shoot someone. After a second though the weapon moved away from them and pointed back toward where they came from.
"Did you get caught up in there?" He gestured toward the town, his face aimed toward the sound of gunfire. It was in the distance behind them, not close.
Bridget nodded, trying not to call too much attention to herself, while alerting the others not to say too much. Will glanced back from where they came, and just nodded, too.
For a half second, before talking.
"Yeah. What the fuck happened? We were all at school when the freaking world exploded. We hid, but decided that we needed to move away from the blast area. There was shooting though, so we had to crawl through the brush, to try and not be seen." There was a shrug and a legitimate look of worry on his face.
It worked though. The men there seemed to buy that they weren't a bunch of Infected people, or aliens at least. Just the kids they seemed like.
The man in charge shook his head a bit.
"We don't know much. It seems like someone nuked the IPB. Our orders are to clear the town. We... There are no official pickups out here. FEMA is setting up emergency camps, to the west. No one has been coming out for a while. I should radio you all in and get a transport over here for you."
Bridget had to keep herself from wincing first, and then step in front of Ed before he opened his mouth. He sounded too weird to be trying to lie their way out of things. Luckily Charity managed it for them, her voice calm. She sounded relaxed and almost charming.
Too much so, given what was going on. It was martial law here. A polite police state kind so far, true, but these men were there to take over and keep her people down, she had no doubt. Real Army, acting on U.S. soil. These weren't the National Guard, after all. She could tell because they helpfully had little tags on their arms that identified them. They even had names on their chest, for easy identification. She was about to simply try and knock them all out but let Charity have a crack at them first. Her power of empathy could work, in a case like this. Possibly.
"Um, we have some friends that will get us where we need to be. I was able to call for a ride, before my cell died. We're late, but it isn't too far away."
That shouldn't have worked at all, and there was no sense that it was real manipulation or mind control. Not that Bridget could tell. That either meant Charity was just talking, or she was a lot better than Bridget had guessed at first, based on what she'd said. The man shrugged anyway, even if it didn't make sense for him to do that.
"That works. We just need to make sure the area is clear. You kids be safe. Probably best to get off the patrol line now, just in case anything happens. If people try shooting us or attack again, you don't want to be too close."
So, just like that, basically telling the truth, except for a lie about a cell phone, they were allowed to walk away. Easy peasy. She'd really thought that there would be more fighting, but knew from her training that real wars didn't work that way. She'd be called on to do it, when it came to be time for it, she knew. That was nearly certain. But right now her goal had to be protecting these people. If shooting started it might mess up her hair, or put holes in her clothing, but the rest of them would bleed and not even heal fast enough to shrug the things off. They were soft, normal people. Even Charity, Bridget's new Infected pal.
Her people, the ones in the IPB, a lot of them were like that too. Soft and exposed to the world. It was good practice, making sure they weren't put in harm's way.
They still ended up walking for over an hour and a half, before they found the woods. Just before they got there Will stopped and pointed off to the right. There was a remote house that way, which looked a bit run down, but had fencing around the outside. Horses in the lawn, too. Bridget had to think about that one, since it was a pasture, she thought. Not a yard. Never really having had either, she wasn't too clear on the difference, except that one had better grass and fewer tasty looking animals in it. She'd never eaten horse before, but was willing to give it a try, at the moment.
Will cleared his throat, a little nervously.
"That's my place. We should be safe enough there. My parents..." It was clear that he wanted to say they'd be fine with a group of strangers coming to visit, but stopped himself. "Well, they'll be with their militia group. Anti-Infected, pro-constitution. As if that wasn't a huge contradiction. I can't stand that stuff, but we have a lot of food stored. Ammo and stuff." Looking down at his hand, he realized that there was a gun in it. Then smiled. "Can you believe that those guys back there didn't ask about these?"
Charity looked away, but then nodded.
"It was hard, but I managed to, um, get them to notice me, instead. My eyes. So, they, you know, weren't thinking about that." She wasn't the best looking girl in the world, but she was the prettiest in the group. Dark and cute. What wasn't to love?
Of course, doing that under stress was a bit more than simple empathy. She wasn't just reading people, but influencing them and doing a good job of it too.
Bridget noticed that, but didn't let it worry her. A lot of her friends could do things like that. Most of them at pretty high levels. Still, it might mean that her new buddy was a bit higher in class than she'd thought. Maybe all the way up to a two or three. Depending on how many people she could influence that way at a time. Making people not notice you had a gun could really work out, during a fight to the death, for instance.
Bridget looked at Will then, her face schooled to not show how she felt about anti-Infected militia folk. It was hard, but not a first mode problem. Simple dislike was enough for her to deal with on that score.
"You should probably get home then. Keep the nine, and make sure no one sees you. Try not to let the Anti-Infected stuff get to your brain. Not all of us are evil." She moved in, not thinking about it and gave him a big hug, resisting the urge to grope him, or grab his ass. Doing that would have ruined the effect, and turned her words into a joke. It took more than a bit of effort, since she kind of liked him already. "Also, forget about Charity. I mean, seriously, don't even think about it. We were just a group of people that walked out with you, and left you here, so you could get home." There was no real weight to the words, but he seemed to take them to heart, his eyes going a bit blank for a moment. More than they should have.
"Right. I know you, most of you, from school. That's it. Thanks everyone. I know this is scary, but we'll live. I should head home now." There was a bit of a strange feeling to the words, as if he truly believed them.
Then he walked away, not even looking back. Charity was staring at him, her tiny dark skinned face scrunched up more than a bit. In concentration.
Bridget rolled her eyes, kno
wing coercion when she saw it.
"Or, you could have just trusted him not to rat you out? I don't think he would, you know?"
The other girl finally blinked a few times then shook her head, very slowly.
"I... Can't. If people find out about me, then... They could hurt me. Or my dad. He doesn't know. Thank god he doesn't hate people like me. Us, I mean. But... If people know about me, they could, you know, hurt us."
It wasn't wrong thinking that. Gesturing ahead of them, she started walking, keeping to the side of the road, the green and heavily treed area just ahead.
"The others should be right up there. If they haven't left already. That's on you guys however. If we get out of this you should all, you know, start running regularly. Maybe do some pushups." She was just talking idly, but Deidre gave a soft sound that was probably meant to be a snort, but came across as something more like a strong exhalation.
Except that, she realized, it wasn't that. The other girl was just breathing a little hard, trying to keep up with her walking pace. Her slowed down rate of speed that really wasn't more than a regular person should have been able to hold. Charity was doing a bit better, and so was Ed, but she got the idea. They really did need to work out more. Whoever their trainer was, he'd been slacking a lot.
For Charity... Well, real people didn't have that kind of person, did they? Ed and Deidre had Hobbs however and that man was both hard and knew what kind of things they should have been working on to keep them ready. Since things like this could happen, or people could come and try to steal them back to their own world for a horrible fate of vivisection, she would have thought that would have been a pretty top priority.
