Underground

by P. S. Power

  “You mentioned getting more money in, somehow? How do you plan to do that, if you can share?” The voice was a bit craggy, but the topic was actually a good one and wasn’t him suggested that the girl follow him to a different room for some reason.

  Pam-Pam, for her part, shrugged and glanced at Gift, who smiled rather sweetly at the look.

  Then the man spoke.

  “If we set up the correct wish, we can teleport cash and change into a room here. I was thinking we could do things that people had already misplaced. We’ll want to just hit America, but that should be… I don’t know. Tens or hundreds of millions? As long as we specify teleporting it in and not creating it, then it will stay at the end of the day. We can do something similar with stable foods, too. Well, other kinds of stuff as well, containers of milk for the kids and all that. Clothing is possible too, but it makes more sense to mainly get cash that no one is certain exists anymore, first. Shopping helps the economy. Stealing kind of hurts it.”

  Pam-Pam glared at the pudgy man, then turned to Nero. She didn’t sound friendly.

  “That. Not that we owe the normies anything. They kind of deserve whatever we do to them. At least most of them do. Still, if we take things no one else knows about, then no one will come looking for us over it. You know, those old twenties in coat pockets and change that fell into storm drains? It’s worth trying. Tomorrow though. If we can.” She grinned then, seeming to mean it for once. “If this works, I’ll need to find a new job around here. Maybe doing more shopping for everyone? Manage day trips for some of the others, if we can?” She grimaced. “I always feel bad for the people that can’t get out.”

  Being that Nero was one of those types of people, he nodded.

  “I feel that one as well. We need to keep our people safe though, from the surface world.”

  Slowly, after eating a bite of gray scrambled eggs from her fork, Pam-Pam closed her eyes.

  “It’s getting better. I don’t know how much, but people are saying that it is. I mean, I don’t see people being beaten in the street from looking funny at all now. I don’t know if it’s safe for everyone yet.”

  Clearing his throat, managing to sound about ten years older than he really was, Nero tilted his head, ever so slightly.

  “I’ve heard some rumors as well. We need to check on that, though not today. When would be a good time to run your program, Gift?”

  The man surprised him then, glancing at the food line before speaking.

  “I’m up to serve lunch at noon, so have to be ready for that half an hour early. Then there will probably be cleanup. When is the attack planned. The raid or whatever?”

  That was information Nero had, since Pod had told him about it directly.

  “At noon, exactly. That might change, but it was the plan as last I heard it. Pod picked it up, so it’s at least partially telepathic in nature, rather than strictly precognitive. That too, of course.” It was simply the nature of the woman’s abilities.

  Pod transformed, being a regular person in her more average shape, then had access to information of several different psychic types. It wasn’t that powerful of a gift in many ways, while still being useful in others. She was very good at figuring out trends, however. If she could have played the stock market legally, there was no doubt that the woman would end up incredibly wealthy.

  That wasn’t allowed, since using Infected powers to influence the markets was worth fifty years in prison. Most likely death, since the IPB would kill anyone trying to get ahead that way, before they ever saw the inside of a court room.

  The slightly round man nodded then.

  “Let’s do that as soon as we finish up here, then? We can work at our place. Who’s going to make the wish?” He looked around, his eyes landing on Pam-Pam.

  Interestingly, Complex looked around and shrugged massively.

  “I’ll do that part, if it isn’t a problem? I just read the script you give me for that, right? So it won’t matter who does it.”

  The words were a bit strange, but Nero got the basic idea. If a raid was coming, even from the local cops, it probably meant that someone on the inside had tipped them off somehow. There were only about half of the people there who could pass well enough to make that happen.

  Complex couldn’t leave and hold the Underground at the same time. If he left, the whole thing would fall apart, collapsing, as soon as he stepped out of the door. Possibly at least. They weren’t certain on that score. So it wasn’t and probably couldn’t be, him. Nero was fine that way. So was Clover. The rest of them could pull it off. It wasn’t C. C., of course. The teen girl would have told them all about it if that was the case. Her first mode would make it happen.

  Pam-Pam was solid, but she went out several times a week, to work and shop for the rest of them. Dan could pass if ordered to, and wouldn’t get a choice in doing it, or in not talking about it later, if he were ordered to do things a certain way. Gift looked like every middle-aged accountant from television, pretty much ever. That could work well, in the outer world.

  Even Pod could walk out the door, or even sneak out and not be noticed above. They had guards though and logged all comings and goings. It might well pay to check those lists, Nero knew. Then, if it had been one of the guards, they were probably screwed.

  Complex though, was stuck there, unless he wanted to leave the rest of them hanging. Even if he could have them raided, he wouldn’t do that. The Underground was, in a very literal sense, a part of him.

  It was his baby.

  Nodding, Nero agreed with him.

  “That sounds about right, if there are no objections? We can do that shortly. I need to finish eating. We have a bit of time. Unless we don’t. Plans can change.” He felt a tingle in his middle, but that was just fear, not some kind of secret power. It would get worse as the day went on, of course.

  They all hurried well enough, then. They did finish their food though, with only C. C. leaving much of anything on her plate. Then, she didn’t need to eat as much as the others did, unless she was using her powers. At least that was probably the case. Nero had never asked her about it. Chatting up the fifteen-year-old girl was a bit creepy, or could be. He was pushing thirty himself, so needed to be aware of things like that. Just in case anyone got the wrong idea.

  It took a few minutes to get back to their living quarters. The place was tidy, which was nice to see. They had things inside, without it being a hoarder’s paradise like a few of the people there had going on. More than one of them were forced to collect given items, so it pretty much had to be allowed, but it was a bit difficult to keep insects and rats out, given that.

  These people didn’t even have plates left lying around or food wrappers. Nero had to admit that he needed to pick up his own spot a bit, for that kind of thing. He wasn’t a slob, but it was important for him to make certain everyone had a good role model to look at in that regard.

  Pam-Pam and her crew were doing it, which meant he needed to as well.

  Complex smiled when he got inside, then nodded.

  “Nice. What’s the plan?” The rather large biker looking fellow was only talking to Gift, which meant that Dan ran off to get a pad and pen for the man to use.

  He wrote for a while, then handed the single written sheet, still attached to the yellow legal pad, over to the bearded man.

  Gift waved at it.

  “Just read that off, while holding my hand. Or arm. We don’t have to be cozy, just in contact.”

  Nero was sitting on one of the three sofas they had, near the open edge on the right. Pam-Pam was next to him, being close without trying to sit on his lap. Complex reached out to Gift, taking the man by the arm, gently.

  Then he read.

  “I wish for the power to perfectly cause anyone coming here to do harm, annoy or who is not wanted, to move away of their own accord, being unable to find us and unwilling to care about it, which will sink into their minds and last as an impression. Anyone connected to an attempt to c
ome here without our permission will respond the same way, regardless of their location.” That was it, the big man suddenly stopping as a powerful green glow surrounded him.

  After a few seconds, that portion went away.

  Gift shook his arm a bit, getting the other man to let go.

  “That will do it. Of course, if anyone tried to come in that someone here just doesn’t like much, they’re going to be stuck outside for the next day or so. Now, I guess we just wait?”

  Nero knew that wasn’t going to be enough.

  “We need to stand ready, just in case it doesn’t work for some reason. I need to go out and stand guard.” He didn’t expect anyone else there to do the same thing. Most of them weren’t fighters, after all. He did all right that way, since he could blind anyone around him, while still being able to see at the same time.

  That kind of meant he won, against most people.

  Interestingly Clover stood up, followed by Dan.

  Pam-Pam pointed at the second fellow and shook her head.

  “We can’t have you going out yet. Even if you’d do really well at it. Um…” She looked around, as if seeking help. Gift provided it, pulling a paper from his right-hand slacks pocket.

  After glancing at it, the guy pointed at the paper.

  “You wanted to look into improving the internet capacity, without alerting anyone to it being done? You should do that first. Safely, though. If you go outside for it, you need to make sure you keep yourself and the rest of us safe first, by not being seen. Also, you should find doing that really interesting and rewarding.”

  Complex grimaced then, but nodded.

  “That’s a good plan. I tried, but I pretty much just connected us up to a regular Comcast line. We have too much traffic for that. I don’t know how to fix it.” He looked a bit upset by that, but Dan simply stood up.

  “I’ll need to look some things up. It should be doable.” He nearly ran to the computer, not having a choice in the matter. The typing that came from the corner of the room was insanely intense. It came in bursts though, since the man had to wait for the pages to load, which really did take a while. Their current connection was mind bogglingly slow.

  There was a soft sound then, and the man got up and left. No one followed him, even if that was probably a good idea. Nero had his own things to get to, of course. Still, he didn’t have to run yet, so he glanced at Gift.

  “Dan has a list? I wasn’t aware of that. How does that work?” Part of his job was making certain that no one was being abused. A honey-do list that the man couldn’t resist was abuse, in his book.

  Waving the thing a bit, Gift grinned.

  “I asked him to write it up earlier. Things that he wants to get to, that the rest of us might not think of. I… he has to do what he’s told. Really, I think it’s hard for him to self-motivate, otherwise, so… I don’t know, this was the best that I could think of.”

  Pam-Pam laughed. It sounded a little evil, to be honest.

  “That beats my plan of having him scrubbing the floors for the whole place again. I should have thought of that one myself. I didn’t though.”

  Looking at her, Nero shrugged, his stomach knotting a bit. That wasn’t due to the people in the room though, just the chance that something violent was going to happen. It was stressful, thinking that the world might suddenly erupt in violence around them.

  “Okay, that seems good then. It’s nice to know that people are looking out for him. We need to do that for everyone, but…” He stopped then and glanced at the group. They were an odd collection of people, but then, everyone there was, more or less. “We don’t have a lot of people here that can stand up. We have some fighters and people that can function above, but we don’t have a lot of leaders. That can be hard for Infected people. That you’re all already working on things like that is… Amazing, really.” He was overselling their contributions a bit, but if you wanted people to do the work, you had to make it worth their while.

  Gift stood up then, as well.

  “That being said, I should probably go and help clean up from breakfast, instead of waiting to work on lunch. I’ve sat around enough, for the last months.”

  C. C. joined him on her feet.

  “I… Really, I should go and help on watch. I can’t really fight, but I can whistle and run well enough. I’m scared, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it. I hate doing dishes though, so it seems like the right job for me.” Her tone was very matter of fact, of course.

  Rather than tell her it wasn’t safe, which she already seemed to understand, Nero grimaced.

  “Stick with me, then. You’ll run messages, if we have anything. It isn’t glamourous work, but it’s pretty much the job of the moment, regardless of who comes or not.”

  That got a nod from the young lady. Pam-Pam rolled her eyes.

  “I can’t whistle for beans, which pisses me off to no end, let me tell you. I should find something to do, too. Maybe go over what people want from above? I can make some trips in the next week, if we can get enough funds for it.”

  Nero nodded at the words. It was a good plan, after all, even if the cash didn’t come in.

  “Start in the main kitchen? Food is always our weakness here.” It was true, if not a thing they generally shared with everyone. They always ate something, but it had been close to not happening at least ten times over the last year.

  With that, they all left the living quarters, to get off to their tasks of the day.

  Chapter four: King Rat

  A soft rain fell on his pelt as Ryan stood outside of the Underground proper. Most of the wet was kept away from him, by the partial roof over his head. It was daylight, which was fine enough, as long as no one was there to see him.

  Not that anyone was going to notice him, in particular. Not until they got too close. Then, to his great misfortune, they’d see what he was. A rat. More correctly he was mainly a man, with two legs to stand on, two feet, proper, if tiny, hands at the ends of his arms and all that. The naked tail and sharply pointed, brown fur covered face didn’t help the picture though. He even had whiskers that stuck straight out to the sides.

  When he went to all fours, a thing that he did well, being faster that way than on only two legs, most people thought he was a real rodent. A huge one. Even if he was wearing pants, shoes and a shirt. He wasn’t large, being only four feet tall when standing up straight. As straight as he could.

  The truth was, he freaked the others out, due to his looks. Most of them wouldn’t even talk to him at meals and more than one had made a point of moving away from him, even if he was at a different table. As if he was dirty or something. That wasn’t true, since he bathed or showered at least twice a day. His job there, protecting Underground, meant that he got dirty. Not stinky, thankfully. He wasn’t hiding in the sewers or in piles of garbage. The old buildings they used as places to spy from weren’t tidy or clean. Dusty and filled with plaster, since no one had cared for them in a very long time.

  So he got covered in dirt, or that day, with mud.

  Still, he was willing to put his hygiene up against almost anyone who lived there. The thought got him to frown, since he wasn’t anti-other people or anything. It was just too easy for others to hate him, based on how he looked. Even if he did his job each day, making sure they all stayed safe.

  Which wasn’t what he needed to be thinking about, at the moment. The word had come in, hours before, that something was coming. Probably a police hit team. SWAT or CERT, or whatever they called the armed bullies that wanted to execute people like him for being different. That was a thing Ryan was simply certain of. If that kind of person ever saw him, he was going to die at their bigoted hands. Well, if they caught him, anyway.

  He was quick, in a way that meant he had a real super power. On all fours he could run at nearly seventy miles per hour. That meant he was pretty strong, too. Enough so that he could run straight up the side of a four-story building, if he had a good run up on it. He could pick up
heavy things too, but that didn’t come up in his life all that much. No one wanted to work with him on any projects where his strength could come in handy.

  There was a noise from behind him, about two hundred meters away. From the direction of the main entrance to the Underground. Inside the building he was in, that being an old warehouse. A massive place, which would have been nice, if it had been possible to fix the roof on it. Maybe to replace a few of the interior walls and get some paint in place.

  Rat or not in looks, Ryan didn’t love close spaces. Feeling trapped was probably one of his greatest fears.

  Moving quickly, he hugged the right-hand wall, which was an exterior one, heading toward the noise. It was probably one of his peeps, but you weren’t doing the job of a guard if you accepted that things were just going to be what you expected all the time. A slight sense of fear hit him, but it wasn’t a powerful thing at all. Just enough to indicate that someone was coming. Probably someone who didn’t like him all that much.

  Which, he knew, wasn’t exactly him being a brilliant psychic. Not many people loved giant rats. Heck, he didn’t and he had to see one every time he looked in the mirror. It might have been easy to call everyone else in the world bad over how they responded to him, but he tried not to go down that road. Sure, he failed every two days or so, but there was real effort there, on his part.

  Being that it was his job, he saw the two people heading for him well before they could close with him. He whistled, a single low tone, to indicate that he saw them. That had both of them stopping in place, with the all black one, Nero, doing it back. They didn’t talk loud on duty, though it was generally safe enough to use a conversational voice, if you were close enough to the others.