The Infected 1: Proxy (8 page)

Penny told him it was one of the good rooms, but didn't explain what that meant, not that he'd have understood. The more drugged he was, the better he could hear her it seemed, until, finally, after Jason left them at the door, Brian could see her.

She looked see-through, but he could see her face, heart shaped, thin, but not skinny, just like she took care of herself. Her clothes were just the same sweats he and Jason wore, but filled out a lot more nicely in the chest. He reached out and touched her there, his hands too clumsy to do anything specific, it probably seemed to her that he'd done it on accident.

"I can see you." He said so sleepily he doubted she'd understand him. Brian fell asleep hard then, hitting the pillow, not even getting under the white and green bed spread.

He woke up hours later, nearly ten hours later he saw when he looked at the green numbers on the clock sitting on the table next to his bed. It was about fifteen minutes until he had to start working out. He got up, stiff and sore, but no worse than he'd felt in the cell.

Better, because he could breath. Amazing how much a little thing like air could change a person's outlook, wasn't it? That and all the water he could drink. It was incredible. The sad part was that he really meant it, which made him sigh a little.

He got up and realized he wasn't wearing any clothes. He must have taken them off during the night. Only explanation after all. Well, he had been kind of out of it, hadn't he? Drugs would do that to a body.

In the bathroom he found a wonderful shower that surrounded him with sprays of water from all sides in a space nearly as big as the entire bathroom he and Doug had shared for years. The little tile squares were pink, not his favorite color, but the water didn't need to heat up, coming out warm to start with. He washed quickly and shaved with the electric razor sitting on the counter, hoping it being there meant it was for him to use. Brian dried with the big fluffy towel that felt so soft he wanted to linger, but made himself brush his teeth and go find clothes. In the closet there was an array of things, no underwear, but everything else he needed for working out, including some black trunks that were the stretchy kind people wore to ride bikes in.

He put them on, not seeing anything else, wearing them under some sweatpants. They worked pretty well for it. It felt a little funny, but maybe it was what they were for?

Brian got down to fourteen to find it empty at seven, so he just started running on his own. A slow jog that made his groin hurt a little. Not a sharp pain, just a light, dull one, so probably just muscle soreness. Kind of the point of all the walking the day before after all. He ran for most of an hour before someone else came in. A red-haired woman that looked to be in about her mid-twenties and like she should have green eyes, whether she did or not, freckles lightly visible as he passed. The woman sat and stretched, bending easily. She folded in half, twisted further than Brian had thought possible and then did a few odd-looking sit-ups, with her legs lifting off the ground, bouncing in place for a few minutes.

He tried to keep running as long as he could, stopping only for water. At about eight-thirty his legs just wouldn't work anymore, not for running, so he tried to walk instead. When he passed the woman, she called him over.

"Brian? I'm Karen Young... Jason Montrose asked me to help with your training and explained everything to me? Pretty good run so far, so let's move to something else for a while."

She didn't chat a lot, just starting him on sit-ups - crunches first - doing a lot more of them than Brian thought would be possible, five minutes worth. Then knee lifts, lying flat on his back into a half dozen other exercises, which repeated. Then they moved to weights.

She didn't make him lift anything too heavy, because of his recent injuries. Karen made up for it by having him work each muscle group to exhaustion, until he couldn't lift the weights even once more in some cases. It hurt, but, Brian knew, that was kind of the point.

This took them to nearly eleven. She had him run again, asking him to try and run till noon. The cute and sporty woman seemed happy enough with the slow jog he'd used before at least. Before she let him go to lunch she asked to see his feet, wincing when she saw the blisters that had formed. She didn't do anything about them, just made a note on her iPad or whatever it was. One of those things Brian hadn't bothered learning about because he couldn't justify the expense on his factory job wages.

"Great job, Brian!" The woman told him, patting him gently on the back. "That's a monster work out. We'll be doing something similar each day from now into the foreseeable future. Jason wants to see you back here in an hour... He'll get you where you need to go." The woman walked away, smiling at first, her face changing expression as she turned, looking like she wanted to cry instead. Brian could get that. She'd probably volunteered for this job with the idea that he wasn't some lame cream puff that could barely keep up with a remedial schedule. She'd been in the Olympics Montrose had said, so this must have seemed pitiful to her and like a giant waste of time. That he was doing so awful that it made her cry made him feel bad, but what could he do other than try harder? He'd just have to do better in the future. That was all.

Brian stood, not knowing where to go at all. He needed to eat, he hadn't in over a day now and felt so hungry he wanted to throw up. Something touched his arm and a soft voice came out of the air next to his ear.

"Brian? Time for lunch. This way." She took him by the hand and led him to the elevator. Brian knew he should probably have taken the stairs for the exercise, but right now he could barely get his body to move.

"I need to shower before I eat. I'm soaked. Can we stop by my room? Is that all right?" He didn't want to push the girl's hospitality, she'd been really nice to him so far, but if he went to a meal like this they'd probably ask him to leave and who could blame them? Getting a rep as the fat guy would be bad enough. Being the gross fat guy...

"Yeah, no problem," she replied.

Cleaned and dressed in another pair of sweats, the sodden ones put in a hamper that would be emptied by housekeeping each day and the clothes returned cleaned after that, Penny led him into the dining room.

He'd expected a cafeteria or a few tables and chairs like the break room at work, the old job at the factory, he mentally corrected, but it was a real dining room, like the one in his parents' home. Except that it was bigger - and a little nicer. At the large oblong table two people sat already eating. Along the back wall a silver window counter, about four foot high, opened directly into the kitchen. The kind of set up you'd expect in a dinner or maybe a greasy spoon. Penny pulled him over, still holding his hand. A man in the kitchen walked over, a smile on his face.

Penny tugged Brian's arm to make sure he paid attention, "That's Mark, the time guy? He always makes lunch for us. Could you ask him if he has any tuna today for me? He does a great job with tuna."

The smiling man, who had a large nose and hair nearly as black as Brian's, gave him a slightly questioning look.

"Are you the new guy? Brian?" He asked, his voice having an almost dreamy quality to it. Kind of like what you'd expect from a burnt out hippie, except he looked pretty sharp. White, trim and with a slightly big nose, managing somehow to beat average looking by a good bit.

"Yes. You're Mark? Penny asked me to ask you if there was any tuna today? She said you do a really good job with it. I have to say that does sound pretty good if there is any..."

Mark nodded and handed them two fully prepared tuna sandwiches on whole wheat, with pickle spears on the side and then handed Brian an apple too. He didn't turn around to get them, they were just in the man's hands holding them out already. Brian blinked and then smiled. Time guy. Right.

"Jason said you should get what you want, but to make sure you eat fruits and veggies too. From now on I'll have salads ready for you, but the lettuce today wasn't too good. Sorry, but I refuse to feed people substandard food." He raised his hands as if to say, what can I do?

Brian thanked him and moved slowly to the table, feeling old from the stiffness and pain, taking a seat a few people away from the woman that sat eating her own sandwich slowly. Picking at it, but making an effort to eat. She looked up at him and grinned, waving the white bread in her hand a little.

"I don't have much of a sense of taste, or smell, so eating's a chore. You'd think it would go the other way, but I don't get hungry either, so it's just work. Marcia. They call me Beatdown here. Um, first mode is suspicion, but not paranoia. That means I suspect people of things, but only when something gives me a real reason too. This is Denis. Itch. First mode greed. I could put up with him stealing money from my wallet if he wasn't such an ass at the same time, but that's cultivated according to the psych people."

Denis flipped her off and looked at Brian.

"Yeah, I'm an a-hole. So I hear your Montrose's new bitch? What's that like? I noticed you walking a little funny, so he must be hung, am I right?" Itch looked at him, his mustache twitching a little. He wasn't a big man, curly haired, dressed pretty nicely, except for the bow tie.

Who wears bow ties anymore?

There must be story there. Maybe he didn't want to wear anything that could be used against him as a weapon, so real neck ties were out? Of course that only worked if this was a clip-on and it didn't really seem to be. The rest of the clothes were a little loud, but red pants with a plaid jacket wasn't too bad.

Brian looked back at him and smiled, noticing Beatdown had risen slightly and looked like she might hurt the guy. "That's about the size of it. Without the penetration, not yet at least. There hasn't been time. You know how it is, you get busy and one thing leads to another, the kids, the job... How about you? You getting any lately?"

Stroking his mustache he told them about how he and Penny had hooked up just the night before. Penny laughed.

"Tell him that I said jerking him off while he watches gay porn doesn't count as "hooking up". It's not true, but neither is what he said. I can't stand the guy."

He related what she said, chuckling a little.

"Fuck you, buddy. No one can see or hear her. That's her whole thing." He flipped Brian off too, making him smile. He'd dealt with jackasses before. True, none as aggressive about it as this guy, but then this was a special kind of place.

Penny however pushed the curly-haired jerk backwards in his chair, spilling him over with a small thud. Dennis stood, not realizing who'd done it, but angry and suspecting, rightly, that it hadn't been an accident. Instead of thinking it through, the man looked around and realized that everyone else in the room was too far away to have done it. So to his mind, that left the new guy? Brilliant. Well it could have been him, if he was telekinetic or something.

Pointing at Brian he cursed a few times and stared at him hard. Instead of an itch or a burning sensation like he expected, or raw pain, he felt... nothing. All the pain had vanished suddenly. The small man had a wicked little grin on his face as he glared angrily.

"How's that then?" Denis asked.

Brian didn't even have a second to tell him "not bad" when he felt it, the tingling that meant he was about to leave, to go to where someone needed help.

"Oh, crap, stop! Stop!" He got this out just before he found himself in the small room. Falling suddenly as if the chair had been pulled out from under him. A man with a knife stood in front of him. Brian felt the scared little girl he'd replace. It was a vague feeling, but strong enough he noticed it. Brian knew he couldn't do a lot physically, but he had to help her somehow. He stood as smoothly as he could even with all the pain, pretending to be uninjured. Well and strong. Fierce, body relaxed and ready to fight. Mind scrambling, he came up with a plan of sorts on the fly. It wasn't a good plan, he knew, but maybe he could pull it off...

Brian roared at the man, praying he wouldn't be Infected or it turned out to be that his abilities would be lame if he was.

The man backed up away from him, fear in his eyes.

Thank god.

Brian screamed at the man, keeping his voice as deep and manly as he could, "I am the Lord of Vengeance, flee before me or die!" Then he ran at the man, praying the guy would run instead of fight. Knives freaked him out and the guy had this knife out to use it already. Brian got nearly to the man before he turned and fled into the house, a cluttered space with trash and old newspapers all over the inside. Roaring again, trying to keep the man scared Brian scurried for the front door. He could see it there, across the dim room. Oddly enough an old, dust-covered piano stood off to his left. The man swung back into the room, holding a shot gun this time and pointing it at Brian.

Of course. Couldn't have just run away, could he? That would make it too easy for Brian. Can't have that.

Pain or not he made his legs work. If he didn't this freak would kill the little girl he'd replaced. He'd die himself before he let that happen. Struggling, he made it to the door. The room had light coming through a window, but no interior lights, giving it a sad and run down look that spoke more of desperation than insanity. But then this fuck was going to cut up a little girl and there was no way that could be called sane.

Working the locks quickly, Brian got the door open just as a loud boom sounded, deafening him a little in the close space and leaving a pattern in the wall to the right of the door, about a foot and a half away from his right arm. He kept going as fast as he could. As he ran he yelled for help, then remembering something he'd heard on TV once, Brian yelled "fire" instead. The show had said that people would come and check on a call of fire when they wouldn't if a person called help, especially a man. After all, their own house could be the one burning, so they kind of had to. That was the logic anyway. He didn't care if anyone came or not, Brian just wanted to scare the guy in the house enough to keep him from following and hurting the girl.