Food For Thought Ch. 003

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It took Logan a moment to realize he was conscious. His eyes were open, but the space around him was pitch black; the rain was gone, and a cold chill pressed in on him. The silence was uncomfortable, his heartbeat sounded like a drum in the dark. Logan couldn't tell where he was, the rough alley floor replaced by smooth cold metal. The pain was gone, but he felt odd, like his body had been forced through a pinhole. His lungs seized slightly with the frigid air he inhaled when he stood up.

The silence consumed his forward movement, he could only hear the beat of his heart and a whisper growing louder in the back of his mind. Logan tried to speak, but words didn't come, the darkness ate every sound he made. He continued walking, expecting to bump into something, but nothing came. Wherever he was, it was flat and empty.

The whisper had become a hiss of static and continued to gain volume. If a sound could take up space, it was eating into his mind making his brain feel jammed into his skull. Logan stopped and tried to take a few deep breaths, but the air seemed to have disappeared, his lungs grasping at nothing. The static grew to a roar of scraping metal, and he felt his head would explode with the pressure.

An hour passed. Or was it a day? Perhaps only a few seconds. Logan couldn't comprehend the sensations overtaking his body and time seemed to stretch. He wanted it to end; he wanted to be back in bed with Lilith enjoying her laugh, smile, and the comforts her body brought. Silence. A bead of light in the darkness so small that it almost looked like a trick.

"You'll remember more eventually... when the time is right... an interesting reaction... A gift, we are curious to see how you use it." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It was a feeling more than words. A rush of air, and Logan was falling into the void, the bead of light vanishing overhead.

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Logan's eyes snapped open, and his head was pounding. Sitting up slightly, he could see he was lying on a couch in a dimly lit apartment. A figure by the window peered out from behind closed blinds; it was dark outside. His left arm had been wrapped in cloth, but the pain before that strange dream was gone. He actually felt okay, maybe a bit tired and sore, but generally okay, despite remembering feeling like death.

"Hello?" Logan spoke to the figure at the window.

"Shhh!" Turning to him and stepping over, the figure turned into one of the residents he had spoken to earlier. "You have to keep it down." Logan rubbed his head and looked closer at the man who had just stepped over. He looked scared.

"What happened?" Keeping his voice down, Logan sat up and swung his legs off the couch.

"What happened is I found you collapsed outside and dragged you in here before everything went to shit." The man kept glancing over to the window. "You have been out cold for a few hours."

It took a moment for Logan to process the loss of time. A few hours? Glancing at his Glass, the display read just past 10 p.m. local time.

"I've been here for ten hours?" Logan tried to hide his confusion.

"What? No, I dragged you in here about three hours ago. I went outside to check on a commotion and saw you on the ground. It looked like you had been in a fight." The man gestured to the makeshift bandage on Logan's arm.

That left seven hours unaccounted for. Had he been laying outside that long? Logan flexed his left hand and moved the arm around a bit which seemed to work mostly fine.

He looked at the man again. "Mr. Golten, right?" Logan asked, attempting a smile.

"Yes, that's right. You're the auditor from before. Do you know what's going on?" He looked more confused and frightened now.

"I'm honestly not sure. Can you tell me what's been happening?" Logan tried to stand up, and a wave of vertigo washed over him, causing him to reconsider.

Mr. Golten nervously walked back to the window and peeked out of the blinds again. He stood for a moment before coming back and leaning on the couch. "There have been explosions and sounds of gunfire for the last few hours. I saw people walk by earlier, but they didn't look very well. There was yelling and screaming." Recounting the past few hours seemed to make his nervousness worse. "I went out to check on the shouting, and you were lying 15 feet from my door."

If Logan remembered correctly, Mr. Golten lived on the Fourth floor. He was almost certain he passed out in the side alley after crawling up the stairs from the basement. How the hell did he get up here? Logan tapped on his Glass and tried to connect to the local data net.

"The data net is down. It hasn't been working for almost two hours," Mr. Golten offered.

Hearing that, Logan tapped on his Terminal and tried connecting to the CAS database. Even if the data net was down, the Auditor's services should still be up as they ran on the Colonial Military's network.

He watched his Terminal do what was referred to as the 'treadmill of death;' three dots appeared and vanished from the interface repeatedly as it tried to connect. After thinking for a minute, it went blank and was quickly replaced by a black screen with a message: Level One Quarantine in effect.

"What the hell?" Logan said loudly, causing Mr. Golten to shush him again.

Logan was more than surprised; he was deeply concerned. A Level One Quarantine meant the entire planet was under lockdown, and no one was allowed to leave. Any vessel trying to land or take off would be destroyed. A small blinking dot grabbed his attention; the interface behind his Terminal told him he had a message.

Swapping over, he opened it and saw he had received something from Lilith a few hours ago just before the data net went down. Logan played it.

"I got your message, and I'm on my way to find you. Please be okay! I tried calling you a few times, but it wouldn't connect, and everything is going crazy." Lilith looked panicked. In the background Logan could hear an air-raid siren followed by the declaration of a curfew. "I'm getting in a cab; everything else is shut down. I'll be there soon." The message ended, frozen on Lilith's scared face. She hadn't made it here, so where was she? Logan was worried about what was happening on Skye, but he cared more about Lilith.

Swapping back to his Terminal's interface, he was greeted by the Quarantine message. Tapping a few commands into it, he tried to get around the message, but nothing worked. Logan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. What he was about to do, was a very bad idea. "Audit override, Logan Firth, November-Three-Zero-Zero-Two Ending." There was a pause as he watched the screen, and breathed a sigh of relief as the Quarantine message disappeared and was replaced with the CAS logo indicating it was logging him in.

Everything Logan had done in his five-year career was now going to be analyzed with a fine-tooth comb on top of a likely dismissal and a prison sentence for overriding a probably lawful Quarantine lock-out. It was the equivalent of shooting off a massive flare and screaming, 'Hey, look at me; I'm probably doing something bad!'

The emergency override was kept as a last resort for auditors dealing with individuals or corporations who wielded immense power or influence. Using it carried serious ramifications, especially if it was used to find a woman you were sleeping with during a planet-wide quarantine. It was safe to assume every person of importance in the Colonial Audit Service was, at this moment, looking in his direction and wondering what was going on. Logan shook his head. He didn't have long before he was locked out again.

He pulled up Lilith's information and initiated a query on the location of her Glass. The planetary information service and data net might be down, but the military network should still be up. He got a location back: Lilith's Glass was roughly two miles away. Logan noticed Mr. Golten had been watching him. He saved the location information to his Glass and closed out of the interfaces. Logan tried standing again, the vertigo wasn't as bad this time. When he was on his feet, it began to fade quickly.

All of his clothing felt a little tight, though. Shaking it off, he reached for his pistol, but it wasn't in his holster.

"Are you going out there?" Mr. Golten asked.

"I am. I have to find someone. Have you seen my pistol?" He looked around the small apartment, the dimly lit interior making it hard to see.

Suddenly it got a little brighter, and Logan blinked his eyes in surprise. He could now make out details in the darker parts and the sudden contrast shift was disorientating.

"Did you turn the lights up?" He asked Mr. Golten. Still blinking, Logan shook his head, and the light level returned to the dim state.

"No?" He looked wary of Logan. Mr. Golten walked over to a doorway, disappeared, and returned carrying Logan's Vertec J7. "I put it in the bedroom after I brought you in." Handing it over carefully like Logan might suddenly leap at him, Mr. Golten backed off after the exchange and kept his distance.

Logan blinked again. He didn't have time to think about whatever was going on. Lilith was his priority. "Thank you for bringing me inside. I appreciate it immensely. I owe you." Logan smiled at the older man and did his best to convey his gratitude. As Logan stepped towards the door, Mr. Golten shuffled away, eyeing him warily.

"It's fine, don't worry about it. If you're leaving, that's probably for the best." He gave Logan a slight nod, scared of Logan's odd behavior given the quarantine.

Logan returned the nod and checked the power level on his J7. It still had a full charge. He hadn't thought about the creature he shot in the basement until now. He glanced at the cloth wrapped around the bite from earlier. Logan muttered a silent swear to himself. He would need every ounce of power in his pistol if more of those things were out there.

Checking it was still on lethal, Logan peeked out the blinds next to the door. Being up on the Fourth floor provided a decent vantage. There was no movement outside in the dark street. A few lights here and there provided illumination, but they were scarce, and it was still raining.

Looking back at the man who helped him, Logan gave a final nod and opened the door slowly, stepping outside. It was eerily quiet, the only sound being the rain.

Once he made his way to the street, he kept a slow pace keeping an eye out as he went. It wasn't long before Logan found the first signs of trouble for whatever had befallen the city.

A fire was burning across the side of a damaged building up ahead. Debris was scattered across the street; it looked like a vehicle had lost control and crashed into the building. Loud pops echoed in the distance, followed by a few explosions. Even muffled by the heavy rain, he could hear the distinct sound of gunfire.

Logan stepped into a doorway and briefly waited. He pressed his Glass to his chest, where it attached to his clothing. Giving it a few taps, it automatically started recording.

It had an electrically activated adhesive almost like velcro on the back that could stick to the minor imperfections present on most surfaces.

In retrospect, he probably should have started recording when he left the apartment. It occurred to him to build a catalog of information on whatever was occurring on Skye. There was a chance it could help him out of the disaster waiting for him if he survived.

He heard the sound of an approaching vehicle, and the lights of a hover car passed roughly fifteen feet overhead at high speed, heading out of the city.

Logan pushed on, sticking to the side streets. It seemed best to avoid main roads; although the sound of gunshots had faded, he was still wary. The alley let out onto a main road; crossing it was the only way to continue. He peeked out and froze.

About 100 feet down, there appeared to be three people in the middle of the road. Logan watched as one stepped into a patch of light, causing him to grip his pistol tightly. The person looked pale, wet, and had blood all over their clothing. They stumbled around the street, seemingly unaware of their surroundings.

Leaning out slightly, he aimed his Glass at the creatures and recorded them, while occasionally stealing glances occasionally to ensure nothing was approaching him. He waited until the creatures started wandering away from him, chasing the sounds of the renewed gunfire in the distance, then quietly crossed the street.

Utterly soaked through, Logan sought refuge from the rain in another doorway. Thankfully, it wasn't too cold. He looked down at his Glass, needing to recheck the directions, but would have to stop recording. He wished there was a way to do both, but when an official recording was started, the only way to use the Glass again was to stop or pull the Terminal out.

Checking his surroundings, he reached for his Glass when his eyes got fuzzy. Blinking a few times, Logan swore he could see a faint map overlay in front of him. His head began to hurt again as the map focused. The path was laid out in front of him and was correct from what he could remember. Lilith's location was still about a mile away.

If Logan sped up, he could be there in a few minutes, but it seemed like sound attracted the creatures. It would be better to stay slow and quiet until he had a handle on what was happening to the city—and himself. The map vanished and the pain in his head eased considerably. Taking a deep breath, he proceeded back into the rain and continued.

As he moved through another side street, Logan was certain he could feel the people around him. The streets were deserted, but there had to be people huddled in their homes, hoping everything would be fine by the morning.

Logan had seen a few more of the creatures milling around, but not a great many giving him hope that whatever occurred wasn't too widespread and could be easily handled if the Navy got involved. Given the sporadic gunfire, he wondered if they already were. If so, why were they so slow?

His answer came quickly. As Logan stepped onto another deserted road, he could see a checkpoint at the other end. This part of the city was better lit than the outskirts a mile away. Sitting and watching, Logan couldn't see any movement.

Readying the J7, he made his way down the edge of the street. Getting closer, Logan could see the shapes of bodies here and there. The checkpoint was haphazard and had been hastily constructed.

Propped up against a barricade was a dead Navy Marine who looked like he had a rough go of it; a pipe was sticking out of the side of his head.

Logan hadn't seen any creatures holding weapons, so he didn't think they were the cause. He didn't see any more Navy personnel but there were a few local police. The Navy garrison probably only consisted of 50 to 100 Marines, so if this event were city-wide, there wouldn't have been enough Marines to deal with it.

Casting his gaze to the other bodies, they were civilians, covered in scratches, bruises, and numerous bites. All had one thing in common: some form of head trauma. Questions came to mind, and some were answered almost immediately as the dots started to connect.

Thinking back to his encounter in the basement, Logan looked down at the makeshift bandage on his arm. His eyes roamed to the dead civilians with bites taken out of them. "Fuck." Logan let his thoughts run rampant before exhaling forcefully and focusing on what he had to do. Whatever it was, it had to be an infection. Judging by his initial reaction to his bite, Logan had several thoughts as to why he wasn't shuffling around with the other creatures he had seen.

Making sure his Glass got a good view of the scene around him, he approached the Marine again. Pushing back the tight armor, Logan pulled out the Marine's dog tags. 'Jeffery Merltin' was engraved on the small Durasteel plate. Taking one of the tags from the body, Logan tucked it in a pocket. With one last look around, he walked past the checkpoint and headed down the street.

The map flickered again in his vision, seemingly called to life by his need to see how close he was. Lilith's location was ahead, coming from the top floor of a five-story building. As quickly as it appeared, the map vanished. His head didn't hurt as bad as the last time.

Logan picked his way down the street and stopped at a building down from where he needed to go. There was movement in front, and from this distance, it looked like two creatures huddled over a body by the main entrance. He didn't want to admit it, but the creatures, infected people—Logan wasn't sure what to call them anymore— seemed to be eating the body.

Logan would have preferred to find another way in, but there was no alley or side street. He'd have to go in the front door. After scanning the road, he didn't see any additional infected around. Logan started forward slowly, readying his J7.

Stopping about 50 feet away, he aimed at the closer one, leveling his sights on its head. Taking a breath, he squeezed the trigger sending a pulse of blue light streaking towards its intended target.

The shot struck a little low, sending the infected sprawling forward. Logan wasted no time shifting his aim to the other one, which had turned to him and began to close the distance. It was moving faster than the others he had seen, especially the one from the apartment basement. Logan took another breath, waited a moment, then shot. It caught the infected square in the head, causing it to crumple backwards and stop moving. Shifting back, the first infected had clambered to its feet and came at him. Waiting for it to get closer, he fired, a black char replacing the previously blood-soaked face.

Not wanting to wait on the street, he approached the front door pausing over the half-eaten corpse. They appeared to have been caught while trying to get inside the building. As he stood looking down at the remains, there was a slight movement. The eyes fluttered open and it almost immediately reached for Logan. He took a step back and stared. The lower half was almost completely gone, eaten by the two Logan had killed. It could only lay there and flail weakly at him. How was this possible?

It was one thing for them to have been infected and attack people but this went beyond that. Logan looked down at his rain-soaked bandage and pushed the thought from his mind. Making sure his Glass caught a good recording of the infected at his feet, he pointed the J7 at its head and fired. It seemed the only way to stop them was to damage the head.

Logan reached for the door, and stepping inside, was happy to be out of the rain. Water dripped off him to the floor. The interior was dark; the lights still worked, but this building wasn't unique. During the trip here, he had noticed that most buildings were dark. It was easier to hide and go unnoticed.

He strained to peer into the darkness when it happened again. The room seemed to brighten slightly, the dark corners came into focus, and he could make out details shrouded in the darkness. Blinking a few times, he realized the room didn't brighten; his eyes had adjusted themselves to see better in near darkness. It was like night vision but with much better detail. There was a light throb of pain from his head that faded quickly. Whatever was happening to him, he seemed to be either getting better or adapting.

Looking around, Logan entered the lobby of a deserted office space. Keeping his J7 ready, he moved further into the building in search of the stairs. It was brighter in the stairwell, where low emergency lights provided a dull glow indicating the exits.

The door to the fifth floor was slightly ajar. Pulling it open, Logan peered around the corners and was greeted by an empty floor. Devoid of furniture, it didn't look like it was being used. He moved forward quietly and stopped, listening for sounds. There was only silence, but he noticed a faint glow underneath a door across the vacant room. His eyes picked-up the vague difference in light thanks to their strange enhancement.