Food For Thought Ch. 004

"Among other things, yes that would be one use. You don't need to know what we will be doing, you just have to be a good little boy and do what you're told." Samson motioned to the contract in front of him. "Give me your verbal consent to the contract in front of you and we can get you on your merry way."

"No." Logan replied. He was well aware what might happen to them, but he wanted to stall for time to think this through.

Waving his hand at guard in the other room Samson looked at Logan dryly. "Well, I guess the hard way it is. Unfortunately one of our employees had an unpleasant run in with a member of the walking deceased last night. We stuck him in a room and were pretty shocked to find him a few hours later in a similar predicament. Unless you want him and Lilith to get better acquainted, I strongly suggest you agree to the contract." Samson kept an eye on the door as a man was pushed into the adjacent room with what looked like a harness on him.

The man with the harness saw Lilith and started to shuffle forward but was held back. Lilith was saying something, but no noise came from the room now, she looked at Logan and back to the infected man in front of her.

Samson looked back to Logan, expectantly as Lilith began to struggle against her restraints, there was no give.

"Hey, alright let's talk this out. We can come to an arrangement, just get that thing out of there." Logan felt helpless as a surge of panic rose within him.

Gesturing to the contract, Samson shrugged his shoulders "I told you there was only one way out of here for both of you." He waved his hand again and the infected man was let go, starting forward to Lilith.

The harnessed man shuffled forward until he was about a foot away from Lilith, his pale arms outstretched, his blank empty gaze focused on her as she struggled to get away. The guard held him just far enough away by the tether attached to the harness.

"Allright, allright, I'll do what you want. Just get it away from her!" Logan was shaking now; he felt hot and angry. The pressure inside him was rising to the surface and he was starting to get dizzy again.

"Get to it then." Samson sat across from him without any emotion.

"I, Logan Firth, accept the contract before me in its entirety. In good faith, I agree to the terms and conditions and submit my biomarker as my signature." His head burned as the words left him, the anger and frustration of being trapped like this filled his thoughts. The hot stone in his stomach felt like a ball of lava bouncing around with no way out.

"Wonderful, wonderful." Samson exclaimed. "We will just get a physical copy of your biomarkers to seal the contract and let you go on your way." Samson waved his hand again. "We don't need her anymore."

Logan went wide eyed as the guard let go of the tether and the infected lurched forward onto Lilith, knocking her over.

In that moment, all time stopped. Logan sat there in utter horror as the woman he loved was caught mid fall with a biting and clawing infected on top of her. His head panned over to Samson who sat there with a pleased smile on his face.

Logan's anger turned to rage and something inside him let go. The voice returned for a moment, washing him in a feeling telling him he wasn't ready, his body wasn't ready, but at this moment Logan didn't care. Like all the times before, his own voice pushed back saying 'only one thing matters to me'.

The lights flickered as everything moved slowly to him, his own body taking what seemed like ages to respond, but giving his mind plenty of time to think.

Samson looked up at the lights, then back down to Logan as his eyes widened in shock and fear.

Logan was standing now, the magnetized cuffs having fallen off as electricity poured from Logan's hands. With a roar of anger he felt the pressure explode out of him, his body unable to contain it any longer. Arcs of energy shot across the room leaving electrical burn marks. An arc found its way into Samson's chest that sent the man flying backwards out of his chair.

As the energy subsided, Logan looked to Lilith and made a grab for his Pistol. The guard who had been holding back the infected was paralyzed at the display he had witnessed, but reached for his own gun as Logan began to move.

Logan was faster. No sooner had the J7 filled his hand, Logan had it pointed at the guard. The pistol flared to life as an angry purple pulse of energy flew from the muzzle, melting through the glass like it was made of paper.

The pulse struck the guard square in the chest, burning a hole clean through him and flung him into the wall.

Without hesitation Logan ran to the door, shoved it open, and was at the back of the infected man, grabbing at him.

With a strength he didn't know he had, Logan pulled the man off of Lilith and threw him across the room. As the infected struck the ground Logan fired another shot from his pistol, disintegrating half of the infected man's head.

Logan looked back at Lilith and time started to speed up. He felt waves of exhaustion hit him like a truck and pain flared through his body as his head began to scream at him.

Struggling to the ground, he used the last of whatever electrical energy he had to remove Lilith's cuffs. He was utterly spent and had never felt so tired in his life. Pulling her into his lap he looked her over, she was mostly unharmed except for a nasty bite to her shoulder and a few scratches.

Her wound wasn't bleeding heavily and Logan was more worried about her becoming an infected than her bleeding out.

He sat there for a moment holding her before he summoned every ounce of energy he had and managed to stand. Logan needed rest and his body wouldn't make it far, but before he could do that he had to make sure they were safe.

Stumbling to the door that led out, he opened it, not caring to be quiet. The hallway beyond was empty. He leaned against the wall and slowly made his way to the end of the hallway.

The open foyer greeted him, but as soon as he rounded the corner a bullet struck the wall next to him. Another crack sounded as a guard coming down the stairs fired at him again, punching a second hole in the glass door. Logan half dove, half fell behind a chair, taking cover.

He heard the door swing open and popped out from behind the chair, taking a shot as the guard was semi distracted with the door.

His J7 fired a weak pulse of energy that hit the guard's shoulder but didn't stop him. Logan fired another two shots in rapid succession which left small burns and knocked the guard over. The guarddidn't get up.

Slumping down against the wall Logan sat there for a few moments and looked down at his pistol. The setting indicator was pulsing red which indicated an overload.

"Sorry partner, I guess all that energy before wasn't good for you." he patted the gun gently and sat for a few moments more. "One more time, that's all. Let's go."

Struggling to his feet again, Logan walked to the downed guard and retrieved his pistol, as well as a spare magazine. It looked like a standard KT-32 handgun.

Turning around, Logan scanned the area and was pretty sure that was it for guards. Even if there was another guard, Logan wasn't in a position to do much. He almost didn't have the energy to stand.

Entering into the room again, he slumped back down with Lilith against a wall. Holding her tightly, Logan couldn't think of anything else to do. He was useless right now.

"Hey, hey. Are you awake?" Logan gently shook Lilith but she was out cold. Holding her in his lap he couldn't do much other than let the exhaustion take him.

Worries and fears welled up inside him as everything started to go dark. His last thoughts were of Lilith, hoping she was ok. No, demanding she be ok.

Logan fell unconscious, like someone just flicked a switch. There were no dreams, just the embrace of nothingness. What he was not able to see was the wound on Lilith's shoulder start to heal slowly. Nor was he able to see her eyes flutter open a few minutes later.

***

He had a vague sense of time passing when Logan finally became aware of his surroundings again. Pain was the first indication he was awake again, he had been in pain a lot in the last two days and was getting tired of it.

Staring at the ceiling, he imagined this might be what it felt like to get struck by lighting and survive. There was still a slight energized buzz about his body, but it wasn't the same sensation as before, there was no explosiveness to it.

Taking a breath he sat up, his body groaned at him immediately resenting the movement. Logan was in a small bedroom, his equipment was sitting on a small table next to the bed.

There wasn't anything else in the small room, it was barely big enough for the bed. Collecting his things he stood and went for the door which opened into a lit hallway lined with other doors. It looked like he was still in the Steepler Interstellar building.

Logan walked to the open foyer area and found Lilith sitting in a chair fidgeting with the handgun he had picked up from the guard.

She looked over at him as he entered and she immediately got up, beaming at him. They hugged like they had hugged so often in the last few days and Logan immensely enjoyed the feeling of her in his arms.

Immediately looking at her shoulder, he noticed the bite was pretty well healed. "Do you feel ok?" He was worried about the infection.

"I feel fine, my shoulder hurts a little bit but it's been healing unusually quickly." She flexed her shoulder a little and winced slightly. "I think I would have turned by now if I was infected, at least judging by what Samson said about the one who bit me."

"You could hear that? I couldn't hear anything you were saying..." He trailed off and looked at the floor "I'm so sorry."

Taking his head in her hands she lifted his chin so he had to look at her. "It's not your fault." Giving him a weak smile she continued "Our plan was pretty awful, honestly."

Letting out a little chuckle Logan nodded slowly. Still feeling defeated he held her gaze. "I promise I won't let anything like that happen again. You're too important to me. Though I agree, our plan was pretty awful."

"Hey, you can't promise things like that. I love the sentiment, but trying to protect me from all harm is a little much." Lilith rubbed his cheek gently.

"I know, you're right. I can try though, can't I?" He gave her a tired smile and leaned into her hand.

Lilith sighed "What am I gonna do with you?" She paused for a moment and looked him over. "How are you feeling? I'm not exactly sure what happened in that room, but it looks like you certainly treated Samson to something special. That room is a burned mess."

"Everything hurts. I think my body stored the energy from the trap by the door and released it when I got angry." A more apt description would be that he felt like his insides were burned to a crisp.

"That was pretty... shocking to witness" She stifled a giggle "Sorry, unintentional."

Logan laughed though, the horrible humor made processing the previous events a little easier.

"Once you got hit by the stun trap I thought that was it, but the electricity just kept flowing. Even the guard was at a loss, we could only watch." Lilith looked a little more at ease now, Logan was surprised how well she was coping.

"It's pretty obvious that something is happening to me and all I have are questions and not many answers. Now you as well." Logan placed a hand on her stomach.

Looking down at his hand, then back up at him she put her hand on his. "You don't think me being ok has anything to do with my bite do you?"

"Honestly? No. I think this started with my bite and the strange dream. I think you're immune and healing quickly like me because... " It sounded strange in his head but he honestly didn't have another explanation "You swallowed my cum, a lot of it."

Lilith looked at him for a long minute and nodded slowly. "I suppose that's possible. The other option being our bodies both had the same reaction to the infection, though I didn't have any strange dreams. I think I was also only out for a few minutes." She bit her lip in thought.

Logan sat in a chair and Lilith wasted no time plopping herself in his lap, still lost in thought. They sat quietly for a few minutes, the relative calm of the moment was a relief.

"Lots of questions but not many answers." Lilith repeated. "So what do we do now? I moved the guard you shot by the door upstairs, other than that I've just been waiting."

Looking around Logan did indeed notice that the guard he had shot was no longer on the floor.

"There's another door leading downstairs, but I couldn't find a way to open it. I did find the safe, but I couldn't open it either." She rested her head on Logan's shoulder.

Thinking for a moment Logan hugged her. "Well, I'm not sure I can open the safe with my terminal. The J7 could probably melt the hinges but it might take a little bit. How long was I out, by the way?"

"About an hour when you sucked up all that energy and then another five or so hours after I woke up. It's around 5 P.M. at the moment. There's no one else in the building, the top three floors are empty." Sitting for another quiet moment she eventually added "This building isn't so bad actually. I think it would be a fairly safe place to stay."

Logan mulled the idea over in his head for a minute and ultimately agreed with her assessment. "We will have to move the bodies out of there though, not really sure where to put them. I'm sure wherever we put them, they might attract infected, if they do eat people..." He trailed off and gave Lilith a squeeze.

Sitting up Lilith looked at him and could see a little sadness in his eyes.

"I don't regret what happened. They tried to kill you. I just wish there had been another way." Logan said softly.

"Logan, you're a good man. You've never struck me as the kind of person to take someone's life unless they really push you into a corner. It's admirable, if a little foolish." Lilith put her forehead to his. "I don't want you to get hung up on their deaths, I could tell you they deserved it, but that might be too callous for you."

"Thank you. I don't think this is something I'm going to lose sleep over, I just can't help feeling the way I do. I'm sure I'll feel a little better after some rest." Closing the gap between them, he gave her a kiss.

"Rest? You just had a lovely nap." She said, after returning his kiss.

"I would hardly call that a nap. I certainly don't feel rested, how mean." Logan began to tickle her gently causing her to yelp as he held her in place and administered his retribution.

Wiggling away from him she stood up and stuck her tongue out quickly.

Sliding from the chair, Logan stood with more protest from his body and gave Lilith a playful smile. "Well I suppose we should take care of a few things if we are going to stay here. Removing the bodies, making sure the doors are secure and then looking for any supplies that might be here."

"Such a busy day. I never quite imagined my time here with you would be quite like this." She said matter of factly.

"I think after this we both deserve a long vacation." He gave her a squeeze as he walked past her and headed for the back room where his new powers had manifested.

"Wrong way!" Lilith chimed as she walked down a different hallway.

Logan quickly turned around and walked after her. "The hallways all look the same."

Moving the bodies turned out to be a simple process with the two of them, if a little grizzly. Making sure the alley was clear, they dragged them down to the far end and placed them in a dumpster. Thankfully no one was around to witness this.

Logan's terminal was still able to operate the back door, which was pretty strong looking, so with it securely locked he wasn't too worried about it. The front doors were another issue, they were made out of glass.

After looking around for 20 minutes, Lilith found a hidden button behind the reception desk that lowered a robust metal security door. She looked quite pleased with herself and hopped over to Logan and demanded a reward.

He was more than happy to pick her up and give her a few passionate kisses before plopping her back down, which seemed to satisfy her.

"Once we are done looking for some supplies, I'd like to get the safe open if that's ok with you." Lilith asked sweetly.

"Of course." He laughed gently at her tone.

The pair split up and searched the building. There was a break room on the 2nd floor that yielded some water and a handful of snacks, but nothing major. A few of the rooms in the basement had more water but not much else.

"That's rather disappointing. We might have to head out to find more to eat." Lilith nervously looked out one of the high set windows on the first floor when they met back up. It was starting to get dark.

"Well, why don't we get the safe open and then search the sub basement. There might be more down there." Logan offered.

Heading back downstairs they wound up in the office which contained the safe that started this small adventure. Logan pulled out his Vertec J7 and thumbed it to the Lethal setting for higher power, but the indicator flashed red.

"There might be a slight problem." He said, looking closer at his pistol. Lilith leaned over to take a look and stared at the red indicator. "I accidentally ran some of the power I absorbed earlier through the weapon and I don't think it's happy. It will still fire, but the pulses won't be very strong."

"Any idea how long it would take to melt the hinges?" Lilith inquired.

"No, it might be a good idea for me to disassemble it and see if anything inside is broken. That might have to wait till tomorrow when I feel better, I'm sorry." He gave her an apologetic look.

"I've waited a while for this moment, I think I'll survive another night." Patting him on the shoulder she stepped back and looked at the safe.

Logan pulled up his terminal interface and tried to override the lock but it didn't work. "It was worth a try." He mused.

"On to the sub basement then? I think we might want to set aside some time to try and scrounge up some food before it's fully dark outside." Lilith had a point, and Logan was starting to feel incredibly hungry again.

There was another set of stairs at the end of one of the hallways. It went down a few steps before meeting a heavy looking door, which was locked.

"Any idea what's down there?" Logan asked

"None, I never went down there. Anytime I was in the building it was always on this floor where I was told what I'd be doing next. Lilith go here, Lilith do this, do more business stuff Lilith." She sounded a little spiteful, which was to be expected.

Opening his terminal's interface again he tapped in the commands to override the door's lock. Like the door to the alley way, it took longer than Logan was used to for it to access and override. He wondered if it was linked to the fact he still had access to the CAS database after initiating the emergency override.

The door slid open revealing more stairs. Cautiously walking downward, Lilith had the KT-32 with her and was keeping it ready. The stairs led to another hallway but there were no doors. It eventually opened into another foyer-like room with two hallways on either side.

"I guess you're just supposed to know where you're going, there are no signs." Lilith pointed out.

"To the left first?" Logan asked.

Heading down the left hallway they were met with a handful of doors which ended up containing two larger bedrooms, one supply closet with a mix of chemicals and tools, a locker room with showers and toilets, and a small armory which held three handguns, one shotgun, and a mix of ammunition.

Logan helped himself to the shotgun as well as some shells for it, thinking it would probably come in handy. He loved his J7 but it seemed appropriate to have a little more firepower.