Chapter 11:
Manhattan made no sense. That, or people was crazy. There was a zone of the city which was dangerously close to be a post-apocalyptic district, while others were in a perfectly normal state.
The first time I noticed it wasn't that far away from the garage where I left the boy. I found a bunch of soldiers killing any infected which got close enough to them, but only those with mutations. Everyone else? They were letting them pass. I even thought about going back and bring the boy with me, but they were probably looking for him.
As soon as I got past them, apparently without drawing any attention, I got into an alley. The armor would probably draw too much attention from the citizens, specially when worn by a teenager, so, setting for what I was originally wearing, I focused on my armor for an instant. All at once, worm-like tentacles surrounded me, and, when they were gone, I was wearing a loose dark blue sweater and a pair of jeans. A perfectly normal girl.
Getting out of the alley through the opposite side, I mixed with the crowd. I had a long way ahead till I found that restaurant, and, for the first time since her sacrifice, that gave me the time to think without interruptions.
I was feeling strangely attached to the boy. I knew it, and there was little to no point in denying it. Don't misunderstand me, I wasn't harboring any romantic feelings for him but, somehow, he felt like family. He was odd, but also a kid looking for help, and that could actually be the thick of it. I was trying to be me, the real me, but I was working with half baked ideas and assumptions. A task even harder to do with all those feelings of anger, fear, and remorse boiling in my mind. They all distracting, each one in their own way. Nevertheless, I was sure that it was the right thing to do. Helping this boy was going to be one of many steps I would have to make if I wanted to make amends with what I had done. Besides, maybe the mother knew more about what was going on, or maybe this guy I was looking for did. Adults should be easier to deal with, and they could help me understand what was really happening.
The city wasn't that different from the bay, but was noticeably more populated. By the time I reached the place he had told me about, it was almost midday. The streets were crowded, people going about their business as if nothing were wrong, though I found not a single sign of the PRT on my way there, and that was curious. There were some daily stands, but I had no money to buy any newspaper. Either way, none of the front pages were talking about what was going on, so it was unlikely for them to mention it in an inner one. It shouldn't be possible to cover the whole situation that effectively. For god's sake, we weren't even half a mile away from the infected zone.
At least, there were some nervousness palpable in the air. Better than nothing.
The club I was looking for had a huge palm tree-shaped illuminated sign. On its right was the main access to the building itself, but the entryphone was broken. Both sides were occupied by three-story buildings, too high for me to jump over, so I did the only reasonable thing.
I got to the opposite building, which had frontal fire stairs. Standing under them, I made a slight hop and took hold of the ladder. People noticed me, but none spared me more than a glance after I began to climb them.
When I was more or less at the same level of the palm sign, I observed the street below, just to be sure that no one was actually looking at me. Then, when I was sure enough that it would work, I leaped forward.
The landing was a bit harder than I expected, part of the anchoring structure bending. As the structure collapsed a bit, I lost my footing, though I managed to support myself taking hold with both hands onto the huge aitch of the sign. Hanging there, people actually began to notice me, panicking and running away. Since that was what they should had been doing in the first place, I forgave myself for the mistake. At least, some of them will get far enough to avoid the deadly horde that would most likely come to claim their lives.
Climbing until I was on the top of the fake palm, one last jump got me on the roof of the building on its left. From there, I reached the window of one of the hallways and got inside.
Once inside, it was quite clear which one was the floor I was looking for, even if there had been no signs. One soldier was guarding the door while holding a grenade launcher.
With more or less an idea of what I was going to do already taking shape in my mind, I walked past him, as if heading for the last floor. Once I was close enough, I made good use of my power.
Aiding my already considerable arm's strength with a motion of my torso, I gave him a clean hit in his guts, making him bend over in pain. A second strike to his helmet took him out of commission.
Checking his vitals, I gladly noticed how something was at last going well. He was unconscious, but his heart was beating, he was breathing, and the helmet got the worst part of my strike. Lifting him up with ease, I took him to the last floor. There, I undressed him, taking his armor and weapon for myself and getting dressed with them, once I had reabsorbed my clothes and switched into a more fitting size for them. This time, I took the time to check and learn the name from the guy, as well as the other details in the documentation he was carrying in his wallet.
Once ready, I knocked at the door. "Mr. Mercer? May I pass?" I waited for a while, but there was no response. Trying it a second and third time didn't prove more effective. There was probably no one at home, and the soldier would wake up soon. In movies you usually got like five or six minutes and the police should arrive soon anyway.
Checking on the door knob, I realized that it was unlocked, so I got inside.
The place was unexpectedly austere. Filling cabinets, a pair of chairs, and a table was all the furniture it had. There was no way anyone would be living there, so maybe the kid was wrong, or lying to me, but, since the apartment was guarded by one of those black ops guys, there could be some useful information inside.
After almost half an hour going through the paperwork, I found one useful piece of information, yet not in the papers I was scanning, but in a wallet I found under one of the cabinets.
Inside of it, I found a few bucks, white plastic cards with numbers on them, and the driver's license of the guy I was actually looking for. The interesting part was that it had contact data in case someone found it, with a phone number and a direction in a sewed label. Maybe I could look for that direction, but first, I was going to give a try to the phone number.
I left everything more or less as I had found it, and went upstairs to check on the unconscious guard.
He was still sleeping. Maybe tired from the huge effort of guarding a room, so I took him inside of the apartment and laid him over the table. That way, no one would find a grown man sleep wearing only his underwear in the middle of a hallway, nor he would get sick for being almost naked on the cold floor. It would make useless the whole effort I placed into tidying the room, but he was just doing his work as far as I knew, there was no point in punishing him more than strictly needed.
While I was retracing my steps on my way back, also looking for a telephone booth, a boy approached me, trying to sell me a newspaper. I had the impression that it was a thing from the past, but I was apparently wrong.
"Hey boy, is there anything about the infection in there?"
"Sure sir! And its just six dollars each. You want one?"
That could be a good way to find out what the citizens really new about it, so I took my recently acquired wallet off. "I only have this one's. Is it fine?" I said showing him a twenty bucks bill.
Cheerfully, he handed me one saying "sure, there is no problem," but as soon as he took hold of the bill, his short legs took him away as fast as they could.
Since the money wasn't mine in the first place, but from some military jerk, I checked on the news instead of trying to get my change back.
International phone hacking scandal, the celebrity journalists coming to the rescue, man walking in road killed, county commission launches new year… Nothing even related with the outbreak. I was starting to hate kids. But, the last straw, the one that made me suspect something else was going on, was also in it. There wasn't even a reference to para-humans or the protectorate in it.
Was I over-thinking it? Maybe, but it wouldn't hurt me to check it. At least not too much. Halfway on my way to the river I finally found a phone booth. Inserting what little change I had, I made the call.
To my surprise, the number of the parahuman emergencies fast response came back as nonexistent. That was impossible… unless I was in another world. Was I in another world? But where? As far as I knew, and poor Madison was quite of a parahuman freak, there wasn't anyone able to swap between dimensions. At least no one who wasn't a tinker and placed under strict vigilance.
What's more, I wasn't in Earth Aleph, because there were some capes in it. Where was I then? Was people freaking about my actions because they didn't knew what a parahuman was? I had to return to the garage and get some more answers from Aphira., he was feeling way too comfortable around me, but first I made one last call.
"Hello, this is Mc Mullen."
"Good morning sir. I'm corporal Gray would you mind if I…"
"Get to the point corporal, I'm a busy man, you know? I don't have all the day to be playing around as you do," the jerk said.
"Yes, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I was on ward duty when I found your wallet. If you tell me where you are, I'll gladly deliver it for you."
For a few seconds, Mc Mullen said nothing. Then, he spoke. "All right corporal. I'll be in St Johns Park in four hours. Can we meet there?"
I had no idea about where that was, but I could always ask for directions. Hopefully it wont be that far away but, if it was, I could just use some more of his money and grab a taxi or something. "Of course, I'll be there. Have a good day sir," before I was even able to finish the sentence, he hanged up.
With that more or less done, I got on my way to the garage. I should have a talk with him about manners once I got the other information I was seeking.
Being a soldier, people mostly moved out of my way, so I was able to walk faster on my way back. The barrier for the infection, established by the army, wasn't in the same spot. They were slowly retreating, so I gave them a hand. I shot my weapon a few times, but I ran out of ammo quite fast. Not like I was actually hitting anything with it anyway, but, when one of the infected attacked me, and I punched him dead, no one cared. They were apparently fine with one of their own beating the crap out of an infected with his bare hands. Who needs logic. But, since they didn't seem to care, I invested a few more minutes in halving their assailant's numbers. At least, some lives would be spared that way. I had to get a grasp on how this people train of thought worked, and fast. It would have saved me quite some troubles, had I have that bit of information beforehand.
The area surrounding the garage was still suspiciously devoid of threats when I got there, but I took the time to check it anyway. I was already annoyed enough without placing myself in the middle of an ambush. The only things I found to be out of place were the new scratches on the metallic door of the garage, but I could have been the one to made them when I closed it.
Once inside, I saw Aphira lying on his mattress while eating some snacks. A bunch of others' empty packages laying around "Where did you get those?" I said suspiciously.
"'ver t'ere" he said with a mouth full of chips while pointing to one of the darker corners.
"You lied to me, am I wrong?" I said getting straight to the point. That feeling of familiarity with him, already getting stronger.
"Not really. It depends on what you understand as lie," he said dismissively, rubbing his mouth with his sleeve.
