Infected 8: Impulse: A Whole New Day Read Online Free PDF Page A

admit to being Infected, most days. They hid it carefully and protected the secret with their lives. At the base, well, everyone was infected, for the most part. If you met someone new, you just told them what your mode was, so they'd have some idea as to how to deal with you. In her case that meant being ready for strange behavior, as the right kind of stray thought took her. It used to be that way, at any rate. Lately she'd been doing a lot better. It was hard, and took all the skill that she'd learned from Hobbs, but in the main she held together, even under stress.
    She didn't take the information back, just moving to Charity, who shook hands like a girl. She looked down at Bridget's hand too, but the whole thing went better this time. No one nearly lost their fingers, for instance.
    "Charity Peetz. Um... I..." She looked away and then out to where the base had been, the giant cloud still billowing up into the early morning sky. "Empathy. I can sort of read minds too. I... Guess that my first mode is compassion? Like Lady Glory. Only not that strong, I don't think. From what I've read it isn't even a quarter of what she has to put up with." She waited then, cringing before anyone even had a chance to react.
    "Cool. So you manage to pass? No one here will tell on you. Right Will?" She managed to make it sound friendly, as if she knew for a fact that the boy simply wouldn't do that. To her surprise he nodded.
    "Yeah. I was stupid, on the bus. I should have kept my trap shut. Sorry Deidre. I didn't know, and it took me by surprise when you started humming like that. I nearly got us all killed, and left behind here. We'll probably be dead from the radiation, soon. It's all my fault."
    Bridget wanted to nod in agreement, but her mouth had other plans, blurting out the truth. It caught her unaware, which meant unfiltered, when the words came.
    "It wasn't a nuke. I just told people in town that to buy us some time to escape. Everyone there is fine. Mary took them all out. Elizabeth helped with that, in case we needed her skills. Really, these two should have been with them. I don't know why you weren't. Probably to keep Ed from volunteering just yet. I had some things to do in town, to muddy the waters. So, no radiation." Then, by forcibly biting her lower lip, she held off on saying anything else.
    That was good, since she was about to offer both the boys handjobs, and they really didn't have time for that. Plus, Ed was too young. Illegal, and everything. So was setting off bombs in town, but that had been toward a good cause. There was no way to justify things like that given the situation. Her parents would be a bit upset to find out about her giving away sexual favors like that, and it was pretty hard for her to keep a secret for too long. Even now, when things were better.
    It wasn't a real issue, since everyone had their own reactions to things then. Ed and Deidre both looked happy, getting that everyone they knew hadn't just died. Will looked up at the cloud that was still rising from the no doubt smoking hole that had been her lifelong home, and sighed.
    "Good. We don't need that kind of thing. I could do without any of it, to tell the truth." It sounded heartfelt and honest. There wasn't so much as a sidelong glance at Charity, either.
    Bridget wondered about that, but didn't ask. It wasn't a huge town, and the two kids had to know each other, and probably had for years. That meant that Will was so certain of the other girl that he felt no particular fear of her. It was both brave and a good plan, given that overreacting was about the worst thing anyone could do when finding out that someone they knew was Infected. For some reason, this boy was playing it nearly perfectly.
    Charity made a hard face, and then wiped at a tear.
    "So, this is really bad, isn't it? Like... people are going to die, bad?"
    There was time for a quick shrug, which she managed to hold long enough to let everyone else see it. Then she