Exterminators Infected (The Exterminators Book 1) (29 page)

“Hi, Fred, how are you feeling?” Carl asked.

Fred shrugged. “Decent I guess. Feeling like I got a bad cold or flu or something.” He tried to play it off cool.

“That sucks. Mind if we come in?” Jin asked. Fred moved out of the doorway and let them in. The girl in the business suit came in last. He slowly shut the door behind him and looked back towards the group.

“Sorry, I look like a bum. I've been trying to sleep a lot. Sweat this thing out ya know?” he said moving to the side of the doorway. “Sorry I made you guys worry. Who's this, by the way?” He looked towards the business-looking lady.

“My name is Maria. I'm here to find out more about the situation you're having,” she responded. It caught him off guard. He guessed that she wasn't supposed to say it like that either since Jin and Carl looked shocked when she said it so easily.

“Maria!” Carl shouted, annoyed.

“Situation? I don't have a situation.”

“It's not what we've got in our report. They say you are changing.”

“Maria!” Now both Jin and Carl yelled at the same time. She seemed unchanged by the yells. She focused only on Fred.

“I don't know why you guys are here but-” Fred moved to the door, hand on the handle. “-I think it's time you leave. Before I call the cops on you all. Especially you, crazy lady.” Fred tried to keep calm yet he could feel his heart racing. He felt his temper rising, even though he didn't feel angry. He felt something far worse than anger.
“Run,”
a voice said urgently in his head. He pushed the thought away and watched for someone to make a move.

“We aren't here for that Fred. We simply came here to check up on you. To make sure all is well,” Carl said smiling. Usually Fred trusted him but right now he felt something was off. Carl was acting friendly but his face showed concern. What type of concern though? For himself or for Fred?

“I really need you guys to leave...now.” Fred could feel his body booming. Something wanted to be free. As if it wanted them to stay. Stay so that he could get frustrated beyond control and it could show its true self. Fred felt less and less like himself as of late.

“Listen man we're just gonna...” Jin started walking forward.

“No more talking. You're coming in with us to the Station. You need to be put on trial.” She didn't have a problem speaking freely. Fred could feel his heart speed up.

“What the hell!?” Jin said angrily.

“Maria, wait outside,” Carl said softly. She shook her head.

“He is to come in with us. Do not forget your place. This is a matter we can't simply ignore.”

“He isn't doing anything wrong, so back the hell off.” Jin now stepped between Carl and her. “He hasn't even been asked. You can't force him to just go.”

“As a Protector I can force whatever I want.” She pointed her finger to his chest. “You better back off before you say the wrong thing and end up in trouble.”

“I'm not going anywhere.” Fred flung the door open. “Everybody just leave me alone!” he screamed as he ran outside.

“Great job, Maria!” Jin yelled as he ran after him. She also ran into a sprint. Carl looked around the house. So quiet, so gloomy, so depressing. This was not a house you wanted to live in, especially alone. He looked towards the door. His student was on the run. Scared out of his mind. It was his fault. He hadn't been paying attention. He could fix it, though. He had to try. If he didn't try, he'd hate himself more. He ran outside the door a moment later, leaving the depressing house behind in silence.

Kelly walked outside the school building. Once again she was left wondering where her lover had gone off to. So much hidden from her, yet she somehow still trusted him. Did it make sense? Was she being dumb? Child-like? She felt that way a lot of the time. She loved him though, that made her trust him. It's what she felt in her heart.

She sat on the edge of the school letting the cold air touch her. She was freaking out about school ending. She watched as the kids all laughed and walked home. She wondered if any of them cared about their future. She did. Every day she thought of the different possibilities of where she'll end up in a few years. Wondered what career she would have, what school she'd graduate from, what kind of life she would have. All these questions, she kept juggling around in her mind. She hated it, but that's the way she worked. She couldn't change.
“Need a buddy to walk home with you?” Kelly looked up to see Lucy standing next to her. “Boyfriend left you here?”

“Yeah,” she said sadly.

“Yeah, mine left too. Aren't we super lucky?” Lucy giggled. Kelly couldn't help but go along with her laugh. “Come on, let's get out of here. I really don't want to be around school when I don't need to be.”

They began making their way towards home. Kelly lived only ten minutes away from Lucy but they never hung out. They've gone to the same schools for years. Been in some classes together. Even had some projects to work on together. Yet neither of them ever really hung together outside of school. Never really wanted to get to know each other. It was odd.

“I have so much homework today. What about you?” Lucy asked cheerfully. Kelly snapped out of her deep thinking and nodded. “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah...”

“Thinking about Nick?”

“Uh huh,” she said softly. She felt bummed about it. Like he didn't even say goodbye to her today. What a silly thing to get upset over she told herself. She couldn't help it, though. This was the first love she ever had.

“Don't worry. He'll be back before you know it.”

“Yeah I know. It just feels different when he's not around.”

“Yep! I feel the same. I get scared and worried about Marshall. One, cause he's Marshall. Two, cause I feel he might get hurt.”

“Exactly! I know it's just the gym yet I get this weird feeling that he's in danger. Is that weird?” Kelly tried to smile but couldn't. She wanted to know why she always had to feel upset when Nick wasn't around. She wanted to know if Lucy was the same or not. Only Lucy could understand where she was coming from.

“They do what they have to for good reason.” Lucy knew she couldn't tell Kelly. Things were to be kept secretive. She wouldn't betray Marshall's trust. “Our men have to do what they have to do. We just have to support them.”

“I know. It's just hard.”

“It is.”

“I just miss him.”

“I miss him, too.”
They walked in silence, both reflecting on the past memories of their dating life. They felt a strong gaping hole when the guys were gone. Kelly worried but wasn't sure why. Lucy worried
because
she knew. Dangers always lurked and anyone can die from a number of things. Every time they went on the missions the percentage of death rose exceptionally. They kept the silence up the whole way home while trying to figure out how to cope with their missing beau’s.

Fred jumped over the garbage can on the street. He ran into the middle alleyway. He could feel the burn in his chest. The voice in his head was telling him to “run”, it was like a repetitious slogan. He was dripping in sweat but still felt the air biting at him as he ran, almost as if it was attacking him. He didn't know what to do. They mentioned a word trial. What was that? What did they want to do to him once he was captured? He knew only one thing. Run.
He shot out of the alleyway and onto the street. He hit the beeper button and jumped realms. He dashed between two people on the street. They could feel his presence but couldn't see him. They both turned to their sides, trying to locate what hit them. They didn't see a thing. He was already down the block when they gave up their search.

He stopped at the street light, trying to decide which way to go. Where wouldn't they look to find him? He had to think fast. He quickly took a glance behind him. He saw Jin and the woman, Maria, turning out of the alleyway where he just came from. He didn't have time to decide where to hide. He ran to his right and was nearly hit by a car as it drove right past him. He darted through traffic as best as he could. They kept their normal pace due to not seeing him, so it was his turn to be quick on his feet to not be hit. Jin spotted him once he reached the end of the street. He yelled as both he and Maria ran towards him.

Fred kept running. He could feel his lungs burning. He needed to hide somewhere safe.
“Do not stop. Run!”
the voice roared in the back of his head. “Shut up!” he screamed, running down the street. The voice told him to run again. That's all it said. Run. How long could he run for, though?
“Fred!” He heard the scream as he darted to his left. He ran half way down the block and dove into the middle alleyway. He slowly walked to the middle of it and hid behind the trash can. He could feel his heart pounding hard on his chest.
“Do not stop! RUN!”
The voice was getting louder. It wouldn't stop repeating the words. He ignored it, listening for footsteps.

Jin and Maria stopped at the end of the block. Jin looked down the block Fred went down. “You go that way, I'm going to go across the street and check down that block. If you see anything let me know. Do not approach him.”

“It's our job. I will arrest him if I see fit.” She sounded annoyed.

“We don't know what's wrong with him. Scaring him won't help our situation.”

“Our situation is blown if you haven't noticed. He knows he's done wrong. He also knows we're on to him. I will capture him or you will. Simple as that. Now go.” She ended the conversation before Jin could say another word.
Fred could hear her walking down the block slowly. How could he hear so well from here? He didn't care at the moment. They knew he couldn't be far. That he must be in hiding. He slid a little bit more to his left side, trying to conceal his entire body. He didn't know what they'd do if they found him. He wasn't even sure what he did wrong. Yet, he felt if they caught him, he'd be finished. They'd exterminate him. He found it ironic. He couldn't help but give a small chuckle.
“Run,”
the voice in his head said again. He sat still trying to keep silent.

Nick stepped off the elevator. Once he stepped out he grabbed on to the wall. He still hated the rides down. They gave him a terrible curl in his stomach that took a while to go away. He shook his head trying to wave away the terrible feeling.

“You okay?” Marshall asked. Nick nodded.
“Let's go see our friends.”

They both made their way towards the rooms. They checked Carl's office but it would not open. They tried knocking, no answer. So they kept on walking. Next they checked the healing spots, nothing in the entire room. They felt a little better not seeing their friends lying on the tables, badly injured. They kept walking forward. “There's only one place left to check in here.”

“You think they skipped school for training?” Nick asked.

“Peter might. I can't imagine Fred would.”

“Well there's only one way to find out.” Nick walked a bit quicker, wanting to get the anticipation out of the way. They walked to the gym door. Nick placed both his hands on the door. He felt the pressure. If they weren't here, where could they be? Dead? That was the last thing Nick wanted to think about. He pushed open the door.

Peter threw another fire ball against the gym wall. It exploded into a dozen small balls and hit the floor. A bunch of little pops and the fires went out. Peter looked to see his teammates entering the gym. He returned his gloves back to a Rod and attached it to his belt. “Hey,” he said. He wasn't sure what else to say.

The boys walked up to him and stopped. Both saw the bad bruises on his body. The left side of his neck was dark purple. His face was badly beaten. Purple covered the majority of his face. His lip was badly cut as well. He looked at them without showing much emotion. He didn't feel any emotion but they didn't know that. They weren't sure how to approach the situation.

“Dude, what the heck happen to your face?” Marshall finally said.

“I fell,” Peter answered flatly.

“All right that worked last time. This time it looks like you got into a fight with a bear.” Marshall pointed to his neck. “The bear won. You look terrible.”

“Thanks,” Peter said and sat down.

“We were worried. What happened?” Nick asked as he sat down across from Peter.

“If you say stairs one more time I'm going to give you another black and blue.” Marshall sat next to Nick.

“I don't want to talk about it.” Peter kept to himself this long. Why did he need to tell anyone about his personal problems? He could deal with it. He failed to fight against his father once. It won't happen again though.

“Listen man, we're here to help.” Marshall wanted him to know. Despite them butting heads Marshall cared about his teammates.

“I don't need help.”

“Your face says otherwise.”

Peter shook his head and looked away. Nick watched him closely. “Please-” Nick started. Peter didn't look back. “-I need to know. We are in this together. Who hit you?”

Peter wanted someone else to rely on. His whole life he'd been told to do things himself. To not bother his father or his mother. To just focus on helping himself. So, till this point, he felt he didn't need help. Even then he felt an urge. An urge to spill all the information about what happened the night before. How his father beat him brutally. To the point he was almost killed.