TUESDAY

Your alarm goes off and you groggily wake up.

Way earlier than you’re used to actually. It’s morning and you haven’t been up this early in a long time. You’re surprised you didn’t just sleep through the alarm considering how emotionally drained you were yesterday. Even now, you still feel tired.

You’re also still pretty damn depressed. Depression combined with your type of ingrained apathy would normally make for a really bad combination of motivation, but against all odds, you actually get up out of bed to go wash up.

You spend an extra long time in the shower trying to motivate yourself for the first phase of your goals today which is heading over to Jake’s comic shop and getting a job.

Eventually you finish up and head back to your room where you start to get dressed, thinking about one of your other possible goals which is finding a new place to live because if this comic shop thing doesn’t work out, you doubt if you’re going to find anything else you’d be willing to do before the week is over.

Always one to seek the way of least resistance, you reluctantly call your sister Donna since she did say you could live with her and Julie. You didn’t really want to go live with her and Julie though because you know it’s going to be party central non-stop, but you don’t have many other options.

You ring up Donna several times and get no answer. You ring up Julie and also get no answer. They’re probably both passed out from whatever they were doing the night before. You give up attempting to contact them today, deciding that you’ll just show up on their doorstep with all your shit if you don’t get this job. It’s not much of a plan, but you do feel slightly better believing you have a safety net. Well you like to THINK you have a safety net anyway.

With that fear partially quelled, you absent-mindedly check to see if Bobby called…then you stop…

“Christ, that was stupid. Get your head straight Suzy…” you say to yourself, starting to feel bad again. You then remind yourself that you’ll have to break that habit.

You nearly delete his number entirely, but you can’t quite bring yourself to do it just yet.

Pushing through it all, you now move on to your next step of trying to convince your brother Peter to let you borrow his car so you drive over to the comic shop.

You head upstairs and bang on the door to the garage.

“Hey Peter, open up I need a favor!” you shout and after a few seconds the door opens up.
“What the fuck Suzy? Why the hell are you banging on my door like you’re the police?” Peter exclaims peeking his head out the door. He’s probably naked.
“Yeah, sorry to bother you with whatever currently doing at the moment, but I need to borrow your car. I’m trying to get a job.” You say.
“A job? I thought you were too much of a prude to be a stripper.”
“Ha ha, very funny. I’m not going to be a stripper, I’m going to try to get a job at a Jake’s comic shop.” You reply.
“A comic shop? Doing what? Getting all the virgin nerds excited?”
“I’m going to be moving boxes or working a register…look I don’t fucking know exactly, I haven’t gotten the job yet. I just know I NEED to get this fucking job or else Kelly’s gonna throw me out on my ass!” you reply getting increasingly exasperated.
“Alright, fine. Don’t fucking bite my goddamn head off because you got problems. I’ve got problems of my own. (Sigh) Wait a minute.”

Peter closes the door and then a few seconds later opens it up and then tosses some keys at you.

“Here. Don’t fuck it up, and I fully expect you to put gas in it.” He says and then slams the door shut.

Well that was easier than you expected, but then he probably just wanted you out of the way for whatever client he has coming over.

With that out of the way, you get in Peter’s car and pull out of the driveway.

A few minutes of driving to your destination and you now learn first hand what Bobby was talking about yesterday. The roads are a mess and the town is in fucking chaos. There are cops everywhere, as well as ambulances and fire trucks racing to their various destinations too. You’re also seeing small groups of people rioting. It’s like the whole town has lost its damn mind and you nearly get into an accident more than a few times. Fortunately Jake’s comic shop isn’t too far away, but given the town’s situation you’re hoping that everything there isn’t going to be as bad as what you’ve been seeing so far.

Eventually you do get to the shop and so far the place doesn’t look too bad, though given that you see a police barricade a few blocks up the street, you wonder if that could all change. Pulling into the parking lot, you exit the car and enter the building.

As soon as you walk in, you briefly scan the shop and find it completely empty save for a bearded middle-aged man with a ponytail at a counter staring at you. He couldn’t be more of a stereotype of a “comic book guy.”

“Well…hello. You lost or something? The beauty salon is down the street…though I believe there was a shooting or something there earlier.” He says.
“Um, no. I’m here about the job. Are you Jake?” you ask.
“That’s me. Now what job are you talking about exactly?” Jake asks while looking at you up and down. The guy is already probably thinking several dirty thoughts about you and at this point you’re really hoping this guy doesn’t turn the whole job thing into some stupid line about giving him a blowjob.

“The job openings I found on the internet for this place. It said you needed someone to move boxes or work the register.” You say.
“Oh yeah, I’m not even sure why I posted that. In this current economy I can barely afford to hire one employee and lately I’m wondering if I can even do that.” Jake says.
“Shit, does this mean you’re not hiring?”
“Well…considering you’re easy on the eyes, I’m not going to say I’m NOT hiring. Besides you’re the only one that’s even applied so far. You’d think with all the fanboy nerds that practically live at this place one of them would’ve offered to fucking help me out. (Sigh) Whatever, you got your resume?”
“Resume?” you ask.
“Yeah, when people tend to apply for jobs they usually have one. I mean not that any of the tasks here are brain surgery, but it’s nice to have some basic information.” Jake says.
“Oh. Well I don’t have one.” You reply.
“Seriously? You came in here for a job without a resume?”
“I didn’t think I’d need one.”
“You didn’t…alright can you give me any references then?”
“Um, no.”
“You can’t or you won’t?”
“I can’t because I don’t have any.”
“Jesus Christ…do you have ANY job experience whatsoever?”
“No.”
“Do you even want a fucking job here?” Jake asks getting exasperated.
“Not really, but I want to run around half naked swinging on a pole getting ogled, slobbered over and groped by horny guys for a living even less, so this place is currently my only option for my desperate situation.” You say.

Jake laughs at your comment.

“Well at least your honest, but if you think you’re not going to get ogled and slobbered over by guys here, you’re sadly mistaken. You do realize this is a comic shop right?”
“Oh come on, there has to be female customers that come in here.” You say.
“Sure, but they don’t look like you and you’ll probably get a couple of them awkwardly hitting on you as well. On the bright side, none of the nerds here are probably going to try to grope you. They’ll be far too shy to try that. No pole swinging either, but feel free to run around half naked. I guarantee something like that would really help out business.” Jake says with a smirk.
“Yeah, not happening.” You reply.
“Didn’t think I’d be that lucky. Well despite your total lack of skill, I suppose I’ll hire you, I do have to ask one thing first though…”

And here it comes; he’s going to ask you to do something sexual and you’ll be heading out the door…

“Do you even read comics?”

Well that was unexpected.

“Well, I used to when I was little, but my older sister Kelly just kept taking them from me and either hitting me with them or tearing them up, so I didn’t see the point anymore.” You reply.
“Jeez, that’s not fucking right. You should’ve kicked her ass.” Jake says.
“Yeah well that wasn’t possible, she’s ten times bigger than me. In fact that’s why I applied to this job, she’s threatening to kick me out of the house.” You say.
“Hmm, sounds like a similar situation that I had with my last assistant. His mom was threatening to kick him out of the house and he begged me to hire him. He was a pathetic little worm addicted to all that anime shit. Really he was a lousy helper, but given that the one I had before him just died in my bathroom, I figured I’d give the fat little anime addict a shot.”
“Wait someone died in the bathroom here?” you ask.
“Yeah my retarded assistant strangled himself in my bathroom while jacking off. Spent the damn day cleaning the bathroom because of it.”
“Uh, the other assistant didn’t die in the bathroom too did he?”
“Nah, he ended up marrying his crazy cousin and lives in the trailer park outside of town I think. Dunno what he does now since he never comes in anymore which is a shame since the pervert used to spend a fortune in this place.”

“That’s…interesting. So about the job.” You say steering the conversation back on track.
“Yeah, about the job. I’m guessing you’ll want to be working the register…what is your name anyway blondie?”
“Suzy, and why are you assuming I want to be working the register?”
“Because I doubt a little thing like you really wants to be lugging boxes around, I mean unless you’re trying to tell me you can’t do basic math.”
“Of course I know how to do basic fucking math!” you snap.
“Okay, sheesh. Calm down I didn’t mean to imply anything. So you’re working the register…”

Jake has still already made the decision for you about what job you’re going to be doing and while lugging boxes around really doesn’t appeal to you, you’re still a little insulted that the option has just been taken away from you.

Besides the sexist implications that you aren’t strong enough to do the other job because you’re female, you get the strong impression that Jake also just wants you at the register so you’ll be more visible to all the horny virgin nerds that come in this place.

And the more you’re thinking about the fact that you’ll have to interact with the public in general if you’re working the register you’re finding it about as appealing as lifting a bunch of heavy boxes around.

Then again if you antagonize Jake over this, he might just throw you out of the shop and then you’ll have no job.
> You argue about your job
You’re sick of everyone trying to control your life. You weren’t putting up with it with Bobby, and you’re sure as hell not going to put up with it with Jake.

“Are you just assuming I can’t carry the boxes around because I’m a woman?” you ask.
“What? No, that’s not it…” Jake starts to say before you interrupt.
“You just said a little thing like me doesn’t want to lug boxes around like I’m some helpless damsel.”
“Look, as a businessman it’s my job to match up potential employees with what they’re probably going to be best at. The fact is you ARE on the smaller side, not to mention you’ve just told me you’ve never done a hard day’s work in your life. So yeah, I don’t think you’re strong enough to do the job and not bitch about it or even get that much work done. I’d rather have you out here working the register.”
“You just want me out here as eye candy for the customers.” You reply.
“Jesus fucking Christ, I didn’t realize I was hiring a FemiNazi. Are you telling me you want to move boxes?” Jake says in exasperation.
“I’m not a goddamn FemiNazi and no I don’t want particularly want to move boxes, but my point is you just took the damn choice out of my hands and made a stupid assumption that I couldn’t do the job due to your own narrow-mindedness.”

Jack exhales again and rubs his face.

“Are you kidding fucking me? You’re arguing about a job you don’t even want? In fact, you don’t even want THIS job! You know how many employers would’ve thrown you out with that sort of shitty work ethic and you haven’t even started yet! I’m fucking helping YOU out by hiring you in the first place with absolutely no skills or experience and you’re giving me shit already! It’s not like I’m grabbing your ass and telling you to suck my dick! I’m trying to be a nice guy here.”
“Given with how you’re speaking to me, you’re not really all that fucking nice.” You respond.
“Alright, I’ve had it. Get the fuck out of my shop. You probably think because you’re pretty you can just get what you want well not this time bitch. I got enough shit to deal with, get the fuck out! Get out! Get out! Get out!” Jake yells and points at the door.
“FUCKING ASSHOLE!” you shout as loud as you can and storm out the shop.

Well that could’ve went better.

As you walk to your car, several nerd types are just now approaching the store. While they’re probably the sort that would’ve been staring at you all day if you’d been working at the shop, now they’re actively avoiding you since you’re mumbling and swearing to yourself like a crazy person.

Your swearing continues when you’re actually in the car. You bang on the steering wheel several times in frustration.

“I hate my fucking life!” you cry out and begin to sob.

Life just isn’t fair Suzy and lately for you it’s only been getting harder. All you wanted to do is hang out in your basement, hiding out from the rest of the world. Now your forced to deal with all this shit that you’re just no good at and when you do try to assert yourself, you fail at that too.

If you were fighting depression before, you’re currently getting your ass kicked by it. It’s a good thing you aren’t suicidal, but the thought is starting to cross your mind.

After taking a moment to pull yourself together, you think about what you need to do next.

“Okay…I need to go back home. Need to pack up all the most important shit I have and head over to Julie’s house.” You say to yourself.

With this new goal in mind, you pull out of the comic shop parking lot and intend on making your way back home.

You don’t get a couple blocks before you soon discover the way you came is barricaded due to an accident or something. There are ambulances and police cars blocking the way and you realize you’re going to have to go a different direction.

You go down some side streets and find out that they currently aren’t much better and in one instance actually worse as a bunch of people have made a makeshift barricade with overturned cars and some of them are shooting at each other. You get the hell out of the area as fast as you can before someone starts shooting at you.

After having to drive around avoiding barricades, downed power lines, overturned vehicles and general chaos, you begin to get even more frustrated since it’s starting to look like you can’t even get home. Or at least not by driving there and given the shit that’s going on, you’ll be damned if you’re going to get out of your vehicle to walk home.

“Goddamn it, I just want to get the fuck home! Fuck it, I’m just going to go to Julie’s now…” you shout to yourself.

It’s a further drive, but considering Julie lives in a better area, you’re hoping that maybe things won’t be as bad driving in that direction. You soon find out that isn’t the case as you’re desperately trying to avoid getting into an accident every five minutes.

“Seriously what the hell is going on with this town? Everyone is acting like an asshole even more than usual.” You say and you’re starting to wonder if there’s something in the water.

Turning on the radio doesn’t help, since you’re not getting much on it save for those annoying Ground Zero ads.

“Come on, there’s gotta be something about…SHIT!” you say when look up from the radio and are just in time to see a bus turning left and about to hit you.

You swerve immediately to avoid being hit, but unfortunately you slam the car into another speeding car, which crashes into your passenger side at full force.

You are knocked around as your car goes spinning across the street. It all happens so fast you don’t even have time to panic or feel the fear of possibly dying right now.

A large black truck slams on its breaks in an attempt to not hit you, which it succeeds in doing, only for your car to be stopped by lamppost instead. Thanks to airbags never working correctly when they should, you hit your head on the steering wheel hard and while you don’t quite knock yourself out you definitely scramble your brains a bit and you’re feeling pretty dazed.

While you’re still recovering, you suddenly hear knocking on your window and a voice.

“Hey, miss. Miss? You alright?”

You slowly look out your window and see a woman wearing glasses and dressed in business attire staring back at you. Well actually you’re sort of seeing two of her and the image is still a little blurry, but that’s the size of it.

You unhook your seat belt and get out of the car wincing in a bit of pain as you do so. The businesswoman helps you from falling since you’re still wobbly.

“You’re lucky to be alive, I’ve seen a shitload of crashes like yours since I’ve been driving through town today. I only just managed to put on my breaks when I saw your car spinning out of control like that.” she remarks.

You don’t really answer her; you just turn to look at the car, which is totaled. Besides part of the front being wrapped around a now leaning lamppost, the passenger side is trashed and you certainly aren’t going to be driving anywhere soon due to the front wheel area being caved in and the axel broken.

You just look at the wreckage of the car silently and then start to giggle at the situation. Soon the giggling becomes full blown laughter and the woman that helped you out of the car gives you a strange look.

“Are you alright?” she asks again.
“Oh I’m just peachy! This has been a wonderful day!” you say laughing.
“Do you know your name and where you’re at?”
“Yeah, my name is mud and I’m in a world of shit.” You say still laughing.

“Um, well you seem to be having a bit of difficulty balancing and you’ve got a nasty bruise on your forehead. You might have a concussion and given your laughter you might even be in some state of shock. I think it would be best if you had some medical attention.”

You look at the woman that’s trying to help you and begin to stop laughing quite as hard and your mind starts heading back to earth again. Your head and body remind you of the pain you’re actually still in.

“Yeah…yeah…maybe. Shit, my head does hurt… I guess…can you drive me to the hospital?” you ask.
“The hospital? Yeah, that place is sort of fucked right now. Even if we could get to it in this mess of chaos, the place has been overflowing with patients and you might be waiting a long time, if they get to you at all. I’m not sticking around in this town any longer than I need to. However, my brother is a doctor with his own private practice just outside town; he can probably check you out for free. It won’t be any problem since I’m going to him right now.” The woman says.

Well it’s either head somewhere with a complete stranger or try to make it to the hospital (or wherever) in your current condition.
> You take the woman up on her offer
Considering how fucked things are in town and your woozy condition, you probably wouldn’t be safe walking the streets right now. This woman also seems okay; she’s actually being more helpful than most would. Most would’ve just drove off, let alone offer to give you medical attention.

“Alright, let’s go.” You say and the woman nods and helps you head towards her black truck. You around and see your accident isn’t even being paid much attention to. Other vehicles are merely driving by and nearby onlookers lose interest. You look over at the other vehicle on the far end of the street that slammed into you. The front end of that one is trashed and the driver has gone half way through the windshield. He’s a bloody mess and isn’t moving.

“You think that other driver is dead?” you ask.
“Dunno, I didn’t check on him. I just checked you first since you were closer to my vehicle. Just going by his appearance and the fact he hasn’t moved I’d say it isn’t good. Can’t save everyone though. Come on, let’s just get off the street and out of this town.” She says.

The woman helps you into her truck and then gets into the driver side, before you know it; she’s started it up and driving off.

The interior of the truck is pretty nice. Comfy seats and everything. The dashboard looks like something out of a science fiction movie. Must be a really new model.

“You doing okay over there? You don’t feel like you’re going to pass out do you?” the woman asks.
“No, not really. Still just sore mainly.” You respond.
“That’s good. Maybe you’re okay for the most part, but it doesn’t hurt for you to get checked out. My name’s Lilith by the way.”
“My name’s Suzy.” You say.
“Didn’t think your name was actually mud like you said back there. Still, sort of a strange reaction you had laughing about your car crash.” Lilith says.
“Yeah, well I’ve just been having a really bad day and that accident just sort of topped it, so I guess I just laughed instead of crying like I have been doing for the past couple days.”
“Hmm, you been having a lot mood swings lately?” Lilith asks.
“I don’t usually have mood swings at all, but like I said, there have been some major events going down in what was my previously calm life that have really fucked with my stability. I’m getting thrown out of my house, my boyfriend broke up with me, I can’t get a job, I just trashed my brother’s car and I have no idea what my future prospects are going to be. Things can’t get much worse.”
“Oh they can always get worse, but yeah if all that shit has happened to you, then I guess your laughing at the car crash situation is a little understandable. Self defense mechanism and all.”

Lilith’s inquisitive nature causes you to be a little inquisitive too.

“You a psychiatrist or something like that?” you ask.
“Eh, something like that. I observe a lot of human behavior for the company I work for. Usually other employees, but lately it’s mostly been non-employees in relation to the company.” Lilith says.
“You wouldn’t have any job opening at this company for unskilled labor would you? A cleaning woman perhaps?” you ask.
“Heh, well I’m not exactly involved in the hiring process, but Ground Zero is a big company and we pretty much have a lot of openings for all kinds of positions. I’m sure I could find something for you.” Lilith says.

There’s a pause as you aren’t sure what you just heard.

“Wait a minute. Did you just say you work for Ground Zero? That company that’s been putting out all those annoying ads non-stop for the past few weeks?” you ask.
“Guilty as charged. Trust me, I know how annoying those ads are all over the place, but I’m not involved that department either.” Lilith remarks.
“I didn’t even know you guys even had a headquarters here in a small town like this one.”
“It’s more of a small branch office really and it’s so non-descript most don’t even know it’s there anyway. We do have a bigger place in Security City. Sometimes I go all the way out there to do my job too, but since I live just south of town it’s a pretty long drive as you might expect. In those cases I usually just sleep at a hotel room paid for by the company until my work there is done.”
“I thought you said your brother lived south of town.”
“He does. We live together. It’s a large house that’s been in the family awhile and we did grow up there so we never wanted to get rid of it and we just decided to keep living there. Might sound a bit child like, but why move when you don’t really need too?”
“Hey you don’t need to tell me. I wish I didn’t have to move from my home. So does your brother work for Ground Zero too?” you ask.
“No. I wish he did since his talents would really be useful to us, but Leslie’s really not a fan of the corporate lifestyle despite the fact that I keep telling him he wouldn’t even be working in a position that requires dress codes and such. Leslie’s also always been a bit of an independent thinker too. He could’ve easily been a doctor working at a hospital pulling down lots of money, but he prefers his humble private practice. Who am I to tell him to do something that doesn’t make him happy?”
“Well you certainly sound like a more understanding sister than my own who is kicking me out of the house.” You respond.
“See, that’s not right. Family should stick together. Well at least that’s what I was always taught. Even when you don’t agree with them, you should at least help them out, not leave them twisting. I’m really sorry to hear that your sister is doing that to you.” Lilith says.
“Thanks for your sympathy, but she’s always hated me and I imagine my brother will too now that I’ve wrecked his car, though to be honest he didn’t really care that much about me either. I’m sort of a black sheep.” You say.
“Mm. Interesting. My brother and I are sort of black sheep as well, since we’re not religious like the rest of the family, but like I said, it hasn’t completely ruined our generally good relationship with most of them. To be honest though my brother’s personality is more likely to do that than our lack of religious beliefs.” Lilith laughs.

You aren’t quite sure what to think right now driving with an employee of Ground Zero. Certainly was a pretty unexpected twist of events. It’s even more surprising that she’s seemingly pretty nice since you’ve always had the idea that someone working for GZ would be on the cold and uncaring side. You’re just hoping that after her brother checks you out, she’ll help you out on the job front somehow. Whatever you’d be doing, it probably would pay more than a cashier at a comic shop.

You and Lilith are silent for a bit while she tries to concentrate on getting out of town. Eventually after several near misses the pair of you are finally out of there.

“Shit, I thought we were going into another accident a couple times.” You remark.
“Yeah, it’s been pretty crazy in town lately. Should be relatively smooth sailing from here though.” Lilith says.
“How far do you live?”
“Oh, not that far. We’ll be coming up to it soon enough.” Lilith says.
“Your brother must really be a good doctor to have patients coming all the way out here to see him. Is it mostly a steady supply of the richer folks making the journey?”
“Not as many as you might think. Honestly, Leslie gets more people that don’t have health insurance or are otherwise on the poorer side really. People who don’t have anyone to help them. As to how folks get to the place, well my brother’s got a couple assistants who drive people to him and they more or less provide this service for cheap. Occasionally my brother will drive people back to his clinic himself. Like I said, he could’ve been pulling down a lot of money, but he prefers the more personal touch of private practice.”
“Well, he certainly sounds like a humanitarian.” You say.
“Oh he is. He is. More than you know.”

About a half hour passes and you see one of those old colonial houses in the distance. It’s very isolated as there isn’t another house in sight and you haven’t seen another one since you left town.

“Is that your home?” you ask.
“Yep, that’s it.” Lilith responds.
“Pretty big. Looks very old.”
“Oh it is on both accounts. I mean of course inside has all the modern luxuries, but I wanted the outside to still have that old charm.”
“Pretty isolated out here.”
“Yeah. It has its advantages though.

Lilith soon turns and pulls into the house’s extended driveway and stops the vehicle.

“Well we’re here, you okay to get out of the car by yourself?” Lilith asks.
“Yeah. I actually don’t even ache as much now and I’m not dizzy at all. I’m wondering if I’ve just wasted your time.” You say.
“Nonsense, this hasn’t been a waste of time at all. I actually enjoyed our conversation on the way here. I don’t really talk to many people outside of work and my brother.”

You get out of the truck and take a look at the house. It’s even more impressive now that you’re in front of it. A lot of care has obviously gone into its upkeep. You notice another car in the driveway that looks a lot less fancy than Lilith’s truck. Must be her brother’s vehicle.

Lilith is still in the truck fumbling around with something in her purse as you continue to take in the sights. Eventually she gets out though.

“Okay, sorry about that. I got so much shit in this bag I sometimes have to recheck to make sure I got everything.” Lilith says clutching some keys and her large bag.
“Sure, no problem.”
“Let’s go around the back. It’s quicker to get to Leslie’s office that way. Just follow that path.”

You walk on the stone path that leads around the back of the house and Leslie follows closely behind. Along the way see a few rows of well-tended blue and purple flowers on both sides of the pathway.

“Aren’t they lovely?” Lilith remarks.
“They certainly are colorful. I’m not too familiar with flowers though.” You say.
“They’re called Morning Glorys. My brother though keeps calling them Morningstars. I think he only does that because that’s our last name and he can’t be bothered to remember a new name with morning in it.” Lilith chuckles.

You stop walking.

“Did you just say your last name was Morningstar?” you ask.
“Yes, why?” Lilith says.
“My boyfriend’s last name was Morningstar.” You say.
“Is that right? Wow, what are the odds?”

You suddenly feel very uneasy.

You slowly start to turn around and before you can react, Lilith grabs your arm and stabs it with a needle. She injects you with something before you can even pull away.

Whatever it was is taking effect almost immediately and you’re already beginning to lose your balance.

“Careful, careful. Don’t fall on the flowers now.” Lilith says.

You can’t even speak; you just look at Lilith in shock as you fall on the pavement struggling to remain conscious.

Lilith crouches down and stares at you, as your eyes start to close.

“…now I know who you are. Bobby mentioned you to me a couple times recently when he was trying to convince us to go live in his compound. Never figured you’d be the same Suzy. (Sigh) Too bad you told me you two broke up though…guess that explains why you’re not at the compound with him.”

You grab at Lilith, but she easily pulls away from your weak grasp. She just continues to look on at you as a scientist might look at a test subject.

“…still…I suppose this might make things a little more complicated. Oh well, I guess this will just make things a little more interesting too. Get some rest Suzy, we’re going to have a big day tomorrow.”

With those last words, you completely pass out.
> Next day…
WEDNESDAY

You wake up and remembering everything that happened just before you passed out, you attempt to sit up immediately, unfortunately you can’t due to being restrained. Your legs, your arms and even your body are all strapped down on a gurney.

You can’t cry out either as you have a ball gag on your mouth. You can make loud “Mmhghm!” sounds but that’s about it.

Your clothing has also changed. While you’re not naked, you’re in one of those hospital gowns. You don’t feel sore or anything, so you can only hope you weren’t raped during the time someone was changing your clothes.

The fear of what’s going to happen to you is overwhelming.

A quick glance around from you position shows that you’re in a plain white room with no windows. There is a light above and a chair and door to your right, but to your left gives you cause for more terror as you see a table full of surgical instruments. A lot of them don’t even look like proper surgical instruments so much as they look like torture devices.

There isn’t much you can do except wait and attempt to stop crying though you fail in that endeavor. You just lie there thinking about how you said yesterday that things couldn’t get any worse…and then they did.

You think about what you could’ve done differently to have made your life better and most importantly avoid the situation you’re in now. You then think about how at some point, either Lilith, her brother or both are going to come in and start cutting you up and torturing you to death.

You’re completely helpless and you wish that someone would just come in and save you from all this. The door suddenly opens and you turn your head hoping that somehow your magical thinking worked, but you only see Lilith walking in with a notebook in hand.

“Figured you should be up by now. Sorry to keep you knocked out for so long, but I’m sure you can see it was completely necessary. Couldn’t have you running away or anything.”

You turn away from Lilith who then gets closer and stares at your face a moment.

“Hmm, you’ve been crying. Natural response I suppose given your situation. Good. (Sigh) I told my brother not to put those in here.” Lilith says taking notice of the surgical instruments and shaking her head.

“He probably thought it would be funny to have you even more terrified out of your mind than you already would be. I love Leslie with all my heart, but he really can be an inconsiderate asshole sometimes. Well most of the time really, anyway the main thing is don’t pay any attention to those tools over there. That’s not what I brought you in for.”

Lilith puts her notebook on the table with the tools and addresses you again.

“Now. I’m going to release your ball gag since I’m sure it’s uncomfortable. However when I do, I must ask you NOT to scream or anything like that. First of all it won’t do any good. Second, it’s terribly annoying. If we’re going to have a positive relationship Suzy, it’s absolutely necessary that you comply with my instructions. Do you understand?”

You don’t really have much in the way of choices and resisting her with no way of actually doing anything would probably just result in something bad. You nod your head compliantly and Lilith takes off your ball gag.

“Are you going to kill me?” you ask.
“Ah the predictable question first. Well, we’re going to get to that and several other questions you might have, but we’re going to be doing this my way. So while I know you’re very nervous and scared, you’re going to just have to wait a while before they get answered. Do you understand?”

Once again you nod silently.

“Good. Very compliant. We’re getting off on the right foot Suzy. Now then let’s get to some of the more minor concerns you might have had running through your mind while you were laying here.”

Lilith pulls the chair over to the table and after moving some of the tools out of the way she sits down, opens up her notebook and begins writing something in it while addressing you.

“I want to first alleviate any concerns you might have had about being sexually molested while you were unconscious. I assure you I undressed and dressed you myself. And since I’m not a lesbian you were completely unharmed as far as that goes. I can see one of the obvious reasons that would cause Bobby to be enamored with you though. You’re a very pretty girl with a nice body and it’s obvious just by speaking with him he still loves you despite your break up.”
“…you…you spoke with Bobby?” you ask.
“Oh yes. Called him up as soon as I got you in the house. Took awhile to reach him, but eventually I did and I proceeded to have a very long conversation with him. I wanted to know more about you and only Bobby could provide those answers what with you being unconscious and all. He told me about how you met, your general personality, what you liked to do, and all of that stuff. When I asked what exactly caused the break up, he seemed to stumble over his words a bit. He claimed that he realized he couldn’t abandon the silly family traditions, but it seemed like there was more to it than that because he kept insisting it was his fault and not yours. As if that was going to change what is going to be going on over here. You want to shed a little light on it Suzy? Please be honest.”
“I…I (sniffle) didn’t want to get married to him. I didn’t want to live under the same roof as Diana since she was his ex and she hates me. I suppose…I also wasn’t fond of the idea of having a bunch of babies like he wanted either. Our argument sort of spiraled from there.” You answer.
“Hm, interesting. So you wouldn’t consider yourself a domestic woman then. I suppose I can understand that. I certainly wouldn’t want to spend most of my time barefoot and pregnant and my whole life revolving around my man’s needs. I don’t think my brother would like that either. He gets so wrapped up in his experiments that I don’t even see him for days sometimes and he’d probably be homeless and living under a bridge if I wasn’t working.” Lilith chuckles and continues writing.

You remain extremely anxious about what’s going to happen to you.

“I also can understand not wanting to live with my bitchy niece either. I know my nephew probably didn’t think anything of it, but I also wouldn’t have put it past him to hope for some sort of three way between you all. Good for you, putting your foot down like that.”

All you can think is you’d willingly have a three-way with Bobby and Diana if it got you out of this situation.

“Anyway when my nephew found out you were over here he practically pleaded for me and his uncle not to kill or harm you in any way. He even said he’d be over to pick you up, but I told him that was completely out of the question since plans were already in motion. Still, I love my nephew and didn’t wish to cause him any suffering so I agreed that you would not come to any harm as long as you followed the rules. So there’s the obvious question answered.”

You close your eyes silently thanking Bobby that he spoke up for you. Of course this doesn’t make your fear disappear completely. Far from it, but at least you might have a glimmer of hope now.

“With that out of the way, your other questions are probably what is going to be done to you. Well, before I called Bobby, my initial intention was to do some tests and study you since I wanted another subject to observe and I saw an opportunity to grab you when you nearly crashed into me. However, some things have obviously changed, but there is still is opportunity here so I’m going to take advantage of it.”
“…what do you mean?” you ask thinking Lilith has decided to completely twist her word to Bobby somehow.

“I’m getting to that. As you might’ve noticed most of the folks in town have gone completely nuts. Well there’s a reason for that and you’re going to be one of the few people outside of the higher-ranking Ground Zero personnel to learn about it.”

Lilith stops writing to give you her complete attention.

“We put an experimental drug in the water supply and that’s what’s causing most people to act the way they’re doing in town. In fact we’ve done this to a lot of places. As bad as what’s going on in town, I imagine it’s even worse in a bigger populated area like Security City.” Lilith says.

While you’re still worried about yourself, this bit of information is a little frightening for other reasons.

“Wait. What? Why?” you ask.
“Well there are very good reasons I assure you, but most of them probably wouldn’t matter to most with any sort of so called ethical concerns on human testing. Indeed I don’t even know all of the answers myself, I’m just a small cog in a big relentless machine. All I can do is tell you this, the world IS going to change very severely and very soon and it’s Ground Zero’s goal to try to save the human race at any cost. Our shelters aren’t the only way we’re doing that.” Lilith says.
“But how is putting crazy juice in the water supply doing that?” you ask.
“Well, I’m not completely familiar with all the science involved, but it basically makes people more resilient to things like diseases, radiation, and even chemical gases. You know, anything that’s likely to wipe out humanity on a wide scale when our glorious world leaders start pressing buttons. It seems like it increases strength and speed as well. Unfortunately it would seem it has a very negative effect on the mind, but that of course was an unintended side effect. However, if animal testing is anything to go by, those effects should only be temporary.”
“But how long do they last?”
“With animals? A few weeks, but we never really got to test on humans at least not on a wide scale. There were some individual tests I believe, but those were the earlier stages of the drug and the results of those weren’t very positive. Ground Zero wanted to pick a populated area to do testing on years ago to hammer out all the problems quicker, but we had an agreement with government, which kept dragging its damn feet as usual on things. It didn’t help that GZ was also temporarily burdened with some incompetent leadership for a while so we didn’t get to do any of this until the last minute and now this is the result. Don’t get me started on the faulty elevator problems in most of the shelters…”

Lilith at this point shakes her head and runs her fingers through her hair as if dismayed with how things have turned out. As she’s doing this, a horrible conclusion comes to you.

“Wait…am I going to go crazy too? I drank mostly bottled water!” you say.
“Yes, a lot of people do these days, but most people still bathe regularly, brush their teeth and such and all that is still enough even if you’re not drinking straight from the tap. As for if you’re going to go crazy, well that’s a matter of perspective. Given what I know about you, I have to say from a professional perspective you’re not exactly a beacon of sanity Suzy, but then who of us really is right? If you were worried that you’re going to start going into a violent fit of rage, I’d have to say I don’t think you are since you haven’t already. The drug doesn’t seem to be affecting everyone in town the same way for some reason. Not sure why, but again that’s why I’m keeping you around for observation. You’re going to be my control subject as it were.”
“What does that mean?” you ask.
“What it essentially means is as long as you cooperate and don’t try to escape, you’ll be well taken care of. I’ll ask you questions, maybe do a few non-invasive tests and that’s about it. If it seems you’re completely fine, I guess we’ll move on from there. For now though I think you should have better accommodations don’t you? This room is rather spartan, I’m going to take you to a new one. Now, I could call my brother in here or just wheel you to it still strapped to the gurney, but I’d rather NOT do that Suzy. I want our relationship to be a trusting one. So, I’m going to release you from your straps, you’ll follow me and you WILL NOT try to escape or anything like that. Do you understand?”

Of course you’re going to say yes to Lilith, no matter what, but your intentions are another matter.

While Lilith seems like a reasonable lady, she’s still a Morningstar and all that entails from what you know of that fucked up family. She might not be one of the chaos goddess worshipping brainwashed cultist ones, but she’s obviously still not concerned with the value of human life and the only thing that’s saved you is having a past relationship with Bobby and his continued feelings for you.

She doesn’t look tough, of course looks can be deceiving, but you’re pretty desperate and you REALLY want to leave. When she releases you, you could probably easily grab one of those surgical instruments and hold her hostage until you took her car and got out of this place.

You’ve no idea where you’d go, but anywhere would be better.
> You make no attempt to escape
You don’t know the complete lay out of the house and you also don’t really know Lilith excessively well to judge how “tough” she actually is. For all you know she’s got some sort of GZ martial arts training especially given what she’s revealed about what insidious practices they’re doing.

You also don’t know much about her brother, but he’s probably a damn psycho. If you threatened his sister, he might be capable of anything; you know how close the Morningstar family tends to be after all…

Also, so far this week, every time you’ve “asserted” yourself, it’s gone very badly. Might be better to at least wait a while and see if a better opportunity comes along and get a feel for this place first.

Lilith undoes your straps and you’re soon free. You sit up, stretch and try to maintain composure that you’re not still scared about all this.

“I know the first time we met you were having problems walking by yourself. You okay to do that now? Not still feeling wobbly or anything?”
“I believe I’m fine. Just very nervous about all this.”
“Don’t be nervous. As I said, follow the rules and you’ll be fine. If you’re worrying about catching the madness that the town has, well like I said, you’re probably fine, but even if you aren’t I’ve got a few things that might help. You ready to go?”
“Yeah I guess.” You say and Lilith leads you out the door.

When you exit, you find yourself in an uncarpeted corridor with a few rows of doors to the left and right of you (All with very strong looking and very locked doors). It reminds you of a hospital setting; you can’t help but wonder if you’re still in Lilith’s house anymore.

“Um, are we still in your house?” you ask.
“Oh yes. We’re not on the ground floor if that’s what you’re wondering though, we’re in the basement. Of course this house never had a basement this large originally. A lot of this was added on much later due to my work in GZ. Leslie nearly blew a gasket when he heard workers were coming in to make severe alterations to it, but in time he realized it had its advantages and I told him his area wouldn’t be fussed with anyway. He spends a lot of time down here with his experiments you see and hates change…guess you and he have that in common no?”
“What?”
“Well as I said, Bobby told me much about you and your past. Said you preferred to stay down in your basement and hide away from the world and weren’t a fan of change yourself. Was he incorrect in what he told me?”
“…no…no I suppose he wasn’t. It’s true. I did spend all my time in the basement hiding out from the real world and hated change. This week has been a big wake up call that things couldn’t be like that forever though.” You say.
“Hm, well don’t despair. While things do eventually change, they can always change for the better. Here’s your new room.” Lilith remarks and unlocks it.

The door opens up to another windowless room, but this one is much nicer. In fact it’s downright cozy. There’s a sofa, a bookcase with books, a TV…hell it almost reminds you of home. As enter to get a closer look at everything, Lilith is preoccupied with something on her phone.

“Shit, well something came up and we’re going to have to get to the questions later. But for now, what do you think to your new surroundings?” Lilith asks.
“It’s okay. I didn’t expect to have such a fancy cell.” You say.
“Suzy! Don’t think of this as a cell, think of it as just a regular room where you’re staying until it’s confirmed you’re okay! Now, if you notice there is another small room off to the right. That’s the bathroom where you’ll find all the usual facilities. I would imagine you’re probably hungry and I’ll be back with some food soon. Just have to deal with something. The National Guard has been deployed in town to maintain order and apparently GZ is sending some of their people to this house as added security. They’re already on their way so I’m going to have to go talk to my brother about this and make sure he curbs his anti-social behavior to a manageable level. Doesn’t help that he’s got those two inbred redneck assistants of his with him right now. I can’t stand those assholes. He’s either going to have to keep them out of sight completely or make them leave…(sigh) Ugh, anyway I’ll be back soon, just make yourself at home.”

Lilith closes the door, which you then hear lock and you’re now alone.

You sit down on the sofa trying to wrap your head around all this. Never in a million years would you have thought you’d be a prisoner by your ex-boyfriend’s aunt who works for the corporation responsible for all those ads on TV and apparently involves in some seriously shady practices. Makes you think about some of those crackpots that posted conspiracy theories on various sites you read. Turns out some of them weren’t too far from the truth after all.

The thing is, you can’t even worry about something of that magnitude. For one thing, you have absolutely no power to do anything about it and second, you’ve got the more pressing concern about what is going to happen to you.

While things are going better than you thought they going to go, you’re still not seeing a good end to any of this. Your luck has been up and down this entire week and just when something good seems to happen, something equally bad happens.

You don’t trust Lilith completely, no matter how “nice” she’s trying to be. At best Lilith keeps her word and you’re not sick or infected only for her to ultimately execute you “humanely” with shot to your head. You can’t imagine her keeping you alive after telling you her corporation’s secrets like that. Unless of course she thinks you wouldn’t tell anyone and even if you did, who would believe you anyway?

The darker picture is of course she said the world was going to change very soon implying a nuclear holocaust like all the GZ ads have been harping on about. Maybe she’s told you because ultimately it isn’t going to matter due to doomsday.

If that’s the case, where is that going to leave you? Maybe Lilith will release you alive, but leaving you to fend for yourself in a blasted wasteland of which you don’t fancy your chances.

And these are all the best-case scenarios you’re envisioning, because you don’t even want to think about the worst case, which is undoubtedly going to involve you being in more pain than you could ever imagine.

You have no more tears for any of this, because you’re spent as far as that’s concerned. You’re still scared of course, but you feel like you’re starting to become numb to very real possibility of death. Doesn’t mean you’re giving up though and you proceed to study your surroundings, taking note of anything you could possibly use as a weapon. You don’t find any secret passages or vents you could crawl around in because that only happens in the movies.

Eventually you take a break and lay down on the sofa, which at least is comfortable, you just wish you weren’t wearing a damn hospital gown. You think about turning the TV on, but you figure it will probably just be full of Ground Zero ads.

Time passes and eventually you hear the door opening up. At first you figure it’s going to be Lilith, but it’s not.

Two dirty looking men open up the door and enter. One of them is huge and has a slackjawed look on his face. He wears overalls that look like they’ve never been washed. The smaller of the two is wearing a mechanic’s jumpsuit and trucker’s cap. When he sees you a big grin spreads across his face making him even creepier than the larger one.

“Hoo wee! Well look at what we got here! Doc really has been fixing up this place, because that is one sweet piece I tell ya what!” the smaller one exclaims.

You can only guess these must be Leslie’s “assistants.”

You sit up immediately and try to arrange your gown to cover you as much as possible.

“Didn’t mean to startle ya darlin’ but I’m Jed and this here’s my brother Hugo. What’s yer name and what the hell are you doin’ in here?” the smaller one says.
“My name’s Suzy, and this is my room. What the hell are YOU two doing in here?”
“Whoa, easy there blondie. This is where me and Hugo always go to hang out when we’re on standby as it were. No point in headin’ back ta town right now anyway, since it sounds like the shit’s really hit the fan out there, but never mind all that, what’s all this about this bein’ yer room? You some new live in whore for the Doc to fuck when his snooty sister isn’t putting out?” Jed asks.

Jed gets closer towards you meanwhile Hugo hasn’t moved from the entryway. You’re feeling very threatened.

“No, I’m Lilith’s guest, now will you please leave my room?” you say.
“Lilith’s guest? Wait, you sayin’ you HER whore? Well shit, I like the sound of that even better! So you ever been with a guy at all or are you strictly a pussy licker?” Jed asks with a pretty predatory look in his eyes.

“The pair of you better get out of here. Lilith has made it clear she doesn’t want anyone else in here.” You say standing up from the couch.
“Oh is that right? Well I ain’t heard nuthin’ about it and I take my orders from the Doc, not his snobby bitch of a sister. So I think you better just settle down blondie. In fact, I think you better start making yourself REAL comfortable.” Jed says and starts fondling his crotch while still approaching you.

You’re steadily running out of options. About the only thing you can do now is either threaten them to the point that they back off or beg and hope they take mercy. Either option isn’t likely to succeed.
> You threaten them
You focus your mind and try to muster up all your courage for what you’re about to say next. It might very well be suicidal, but if the unthinkable is going to happen, then at least you can take comfort that you stood up to them even as scared as you are right now.

“Look, you fucking inbred rednecks, get the fuck out before you get in some major shit so deep that you ain’t got the hip waiters for it!” you exclaim.

Jed is hardly intimidated and his expression changes from perverted leer to burning hatred.

“Hugo get out of that entryway and close that fucking door. I think this little blonde bitch needs to learn I don’t take orders from whores. Let alone one that isn’t sucking my cock, but I think we can change that situation.” Jed says.

“You think that’s supposed to fucking scare me?” you say and then Jed grabs you by both arms squeezing tightly. He presses his body against yours and looks down at you menacingly.

“Oh I can tell you’re scared bitch, I’ve been doing this a long time. And even if you weren’t, you better damn well be. Last time I saw Doc’s sister she was outside speaking with some soldier boys. She ain’t gonna be down here in time to save your ass and if you think that we’ll get in trouble for fucking you up, you over estimate your worth. At the most, we’ll get chewed out by Doc, for pissing off his sister by wreckin’ her kitty licking fuck buddy.” Jed says.

You just look down after Jed’s response. Still holding your arms tightly he addresses you again.

“What? Got nuthin’ else to say? Yeah that’s what I fucking thought. You fucking whores talk tough when you think you got a savior, but when the shit goes down, you shut the fuck up real quick.”

You start laughing and look up at Jed’s face, which is now showing a bit of confusion due to your response.

“You truly are one dumb ass fucktard, Jed. You keep thinking I’m Lilith’s whore, or whatever fantasy YOU put in your own goddamn pathetic little head of yours. If I was her whore, don’t you think I’d be dressed more like one? Look at how the fuck I’m dressed! I’m in a fucking HOSPITAL GOWN! Who wears hospital gowns? FUCKING PATIENTS! I’m her patient! I’M FUCKING SICK AND CONTAGIOUS YOU STUPID ASSHOLE!” you shout with a mixture of contempt and amusement.

At this point Jed takes his hands off of you and backs off a bit.

“Shit!” he shouts.
“Oh what? Am I not so attractive now that you’ve found out I might have shit that will make your dick fall off? Come on stud, I’ll make it totally worth it! I guarantee it’ll be the last fuck you’ll ever need.” You say and start grabbing at him and laughing.

Jed gives you a hard shove causing you to fall backwards.

“Fuck! Hugo, this bitch has got the crotch rot somethin’ fierce! Open up that fucking door!” Jed shouts.

Hugo comprehends the situation just well enough to follow Jed’s orders and it doesn’t take long before they’re both out the door. Unfortunately Jed isn’t quite so stupid to leave the door open or unlocked since you hear a firm click. Of course maybe he was just so scared of you possibly getting out that he took the time to lock it. In any case you got rid of them and you’re alone again.

You’re quite pleased that this is the first time you actually employed an assertive method this week and it worked out. Your arms hurt from Jed squeezing them though.

A half hour later, you hear the door again. This time it’s Lilith and she looks somewhat harried when she comes in. She’s also carrying a tray of food with what looks to be meat on it and some potatoes on it. She places it on coffee table in front of the sofa and also gives you a bottle of water. She then sits down on the chair Jed was sitting in.

“Whew. Sorry about that. Just one thing after another. Anyway, there’s your food. It’s left over meatloaf from yesterday that I heated up. Hope that’s okay. We still had quite a bit left and I didn’t really have time to prepare anything else. Leslie usually does most of the cooking around here anyway.”

You stare at the meatloaf, which doesn’t look all that appetizing. The potatoes look okay though. You notice your eating utensils are plastic. Guess Lilith isn’t completely trusting of you either.

“What’s wrong? You’re not a vegetarian are you?” Lilith asks.
“Um, no. Not at all.” You say and poke at the meatloaf.
“You think I poisoned the food?”
“Actually I didn’t think that, until you just mentioned it. I was just thinking of how unappealing the meat looks.” You say.
“Well not that this might help calm your fears, but I didn’t poison or drug the food. There wouldn’t be much point in it; you’re my control subject after all. As for the look of the meat, well my brother’s a good cook, but he’s never been big on presentation, but I assure you it tastes much better than it looks. Of course you don’t need to eat it. There are potatoes there.”
“No, I’ll eat. I’m hungry enough and I don’t have that much choice.” You say.

You take a bite of the meatloaf and it’s actually just like Lilith said, it looks awful, but it does taste good.

“You were right.” You say.
“Well I do understand the hesitation. I remember some of the meals my brother has made in the past and they looked more like something that already was digested. He’s gotten a bit better with it though. Anyway, so how have you been feeling? Still no sudden mood swings or violent urges or anything I trust?” Lilith asks.
“Well no, but I did have to act crazy to get two redneck assholes out of here.”
“Oh no. (Sigh) Jed and Hugo came in here? I told my brother not to let those assholes wander around down here picking the locks to places they’re not supposed to be going anyway!”
“Apparently they were under the impression I was your personal whore.”
“What?! Why the hell would they think…nevermind…they didn’t do anything to you did they?”
“No, like I said, I acted crazy. Or more specifically I convinced them I was sick and contagious. They left real quick after that.”
“Heh, good thinking. Explains why I saw their shitty pick up truck screech out of here earlier.”
“Hope to never see them again.” You say continuing to eat.
“Yeah well that will be arranged. I’ll tell my people stationed outside to shoot them on sight if they return. I don’t care if Leslie complains about it either. Besides, there’s news that we all might not be staying here much longer.”

You stop eating for a moment.

“What do you mean?” you ask.
“Well as I said, the National Guard are currently stationed in town and trying to maintain order. While they might succeed, GZ doesn’t fancy their chances and would rather not lose a valuable employee such as myself in the possible chaos that will spill over. So they’re ready to ship me and my brother out of here to a GZ shelter, a proper company one, not the ones that have been built for the common public. It’s just as well considering the reports we’ve been getting on the world situation.” Lilith says.

You take a drink of water wondering what this means for you.

“When is this going to happen?” you ask.
“Maybe tomorrow, definitely by Friday. I’m going to miss this house, so many good memories here especially with Leslie. I can only imagine the talk I’m going to have to have with him. Looks like he’s going to have company job whether he wants one or not. Oh well, he’ll get used to it…”
“What about me?” you interrupt.
“Well, that is the question isn’t it?” Lilith says, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes.

“While I haven’t been able to do the tests and ask the questions like I wanted to earlier today, I’m fairly certain you’re fine and you’re one of those few that aren’t affected by the side affects of the drug. I have a few theories on why that might be, but nothing solid. It doesn’t really matter anyway I suppose at this late stage.” Lilith remarks.
“So…I’m free to go?” you ask.
“Well, I do want to keep you for observation for one more day. I mean might as well since we might not be leaving tomorrow anyway. After that, well I suppose it’s up to you. If you want to leave, you will be allowed to leave. You probably should keep in mind however, that returning to town might not be the best idea, so I’m not sure where you’d go. Do you have anywhere to go?”
“Not really. I mean I don’t have my phone so I can’t even call anyone who might give a shit. Not that my family would give a shit of course, so I don’t really even have a home at this point.”
“Hm, well that leads me to the other possible option, that I can probably take you with us. Might take some string pulling and calling in of favors, but if you want to come with us, you can.”
“Go with you? To a GZ Shelter? What would I do there?”
“Oh I’m sure we could find something, no need to worry about that. You’d have to follow the rules there though. Life would be quite different, but with the way things are going, I’m sure life is going to be different anyway.”

You just nod silently as Lilith stands up to head back to the door.

“Tell you what. Let’s dispense with any more interrogation today. You already had to deal with waking up strapped to a gurney, not knowing where you were, being told that the world may end soon and that you may or may not suffer a negative side affect of a drug, not to mention those redneck rapists barging in here. I think you deserve to relax for the rest of the day and night.”
“So, that’s it?”
“For today it is. Like I said, just make yourself at home for now. This will all be over soon and you won’t be a prisoner here. I’m glad you’ve been making this easy Suzy. That’s definitely a good thing.” Lilith says and leaves.

Alone once again and now you’ve got the whole night to contemplate your situation, which has changed again.

Escape is now looking unnecessary given that Lilith seems to not have any insidious plans of going back on here word. You’re not even sure it would be a good idea to do so anyway now considering she mentioned GZ security are now guarding the perimeter of the house.

Of course that still leaves the question of “where will you go?” While she’s already warned you about town, you really don’t have anywhere else. You don’t even have a vehicle. You suppose you could always just risk heading back home or maybe even Julie’s assuming either place is still standing.

The offer to go with Lilith and her brother is just odd though. It really is an unknown factor, but if things are really getting as bad as Lilith claims, maybe you need to embrace the unknown.

You spend the rest of the night pondering your options until you eventually get sleepy and drift off on the couch.
> Next day…
THURSDAY

You wake up once again a prisoner, though perhaps not for long and despite everything, you’re actually feeling slightly optimistic about your situation. Very slightly.

You aren’t sure what time it is, but knowing your usual sleeping habits, it’s probably at least the afternoon. You imagine you’ll be getting a visit from Lilith as usual soon so you start perusing the nearby books until she comes in. You pick one that looks interesting to you.

As you’re reading “Unusual Sexual Practices From Around the World” you start hearing the faint noise of what sounds like yelling or shouting. Doesn’t really sound like any actual words though, more like just noises, still the sound isn’t completely distinct.

A few minutes later you hear something that sounds like a gunshot. You start to worry and keeping you ears open, but you don’t hear anything else unusual until you hear that familiar sound of the door opening up. Fortunately it’s Lilith and not someone who isn’t supposed to be in here. Once again she looks a bit beleaguered as she carries in what looks to be a small medical bag and a notebook.

“Um, is everything okay? I thought I heard shouting and a shot.” You say.
“Yeah, I imagine you would have given your proximity. You remember I said you were my control subject? Well some of the others down here aren’t and they’ve been getting worse. My brother just put one down that was starting to break his restraints. I have a feeling the rest are going to have to be put down as well, because I don’t think I’m going to bother having them transported with us when we leave, which is looking like today since shit is reportedly getting even worse in town.

The “putting down” of subjects is a little concerning until Lilith immediately follows up her statement.

“Relax, you’re not getting shot unless you start regressing into a savage and let me guess, you’ve experienced no problems correct?”
“Nope. Feel fine. Just a little anxiousness, especially being near people that might be turning into beasts.” You remark.
“Don’t worry about that. They might escape the restraints, but they aren’t escaping out the rooms. We made sure of that when we had this area built it had solid doors and walls. Anyway, since things are moving rather quickly now I suppose I’ll just wrap up your little part in this observation which isn’t going to take long.”

Lilith at this point pulls out a syringe and a tourniquet along with some cotton balls and rubbing alcohol.

“Now I’m just going to draw some blood, not inject you with anything.”
“What do you need my blood for?”
“Oh just need another sample for testing. I mean I already drew blood from you when you were unconscious a day ago, so this is just a follow up really. Considering you’re not frothing at the mouth or destroying this room by now, I’m very certain you weren’t affected by whatever exposure of the drug you might have in contact with, but never hurts to be thorough. Your arm please.”

Lilith has more or less been playing square with you so reluctantly you hold out your arm and after prepping it she begins to draw blood.

“Ugh, hate needles.” You say looking away.
“Most people do. Leslie used to hate them too. Still does actually. Really odd considering he’s a doctor and uses them on a regular basis…then again I suppose it’s different when you’re using them on other people. There we go.”

Lilith finishes up and you’re rubbing your arm watching a tube of your blood go into another container and then placed back into the bag. Lilith then starts flipping through pages of her notebook.

“So, I guess I’ll be free to leave soon?” you ask.
“Yes. I’ll have the clothes you were wearing brought to you soon. I’m sure you’re sick of wearing the gown. After that well, I guess you can make your decision on whether to go or come with us. I contacted a few high ups at the offices and they said it was fine if I brought you.” She answers without looking up.
“Oh. Well I guess that does open up options for me then.” You say still unsure of what you’re going to do.

You have been meaning to ask Lilith about something she said to you yesterday though.

“Hey, I was sort of wondering…what did you mean yesterday about me not being a beacon of sanity?” you ask.
“Funny you should ask, since I was just about to do a last minute interview with you, so I had at least a few more things to put down in my report. Most of what I’ve got on you is only through observation or what Bobby told me. It would be nice if I had something directly from you. Of course as I keep complaining about, things haven’t been ideal lately.”

Lilith finds the page she was looking for and then focuses complete attention on you.

“To answer your question…keep in mind this is based on all observation and mostly Bobby’s words so I’ll admit this isn’t necessarily an accurate assessment of your personality. No offense is meant, but here’s my impression of you and why and please feel free to interject whenever you want.”

Lilith goes into a psychological assessment of your character and while you do fill in on some of what she might be missing and clarify on other aspects of your life, she doesn’t really lose a beat in her view of you, indeed it only seems to enhance it.

She starts off by talking about your introverted behavior to the point of falling into escapist behavior. She discusses that some of this is due to being the product of a dysfunctional family where you were only ever close to your mother since she was the only one that ever displayed any positive attention and when she died that was one of the major turning points of you shutting yourself off from the world and “giving up” in general. However Lilith mentions that this relationship wasn’t exactly the healthiest since it placed pressure on being “good and proper” which apparently had some negative effects on not just you, but your other sisters as well.

Then she mentions that while you finally broke out of this shell a bit when you met Bobby, that relationship wasn’t exactly built on a stable foundation to begin with and indeed just fed into your world of fantasy on some level, with Bobby being a “Prince” whisking you away from the clutches of a “villain” (Your uncle in this case). Most of your relationship was co-dependency and enabling behavior since who would anyone that considered themselves “normal” stay with a man who doesn’t just murder people, but essentially runs a cult?

She then goes on to say that while she does think you did care for Bobby on some level, she doesn’t believe that you were really capable of ever loving him and not because of his sister, but because deep down you’re not really capable of the emotion at all. She mentions that you’re so used to your own company and withdrawn that you can’t even form proper attachments. Even a “non-normal” one like you had with Bobby.

She finishes up by saying that while much of your personality can be explained by “nurture”, there is evidence that all of the behaviors you exhibit were all just laying in wait to flourish anyway. Other members of your family have their own personality problems (Sadism, suicidal depression, narcissism, nymphomania, paranoid delusions, psychopathy, etc) meaning that it’s probably all genetic on some level. She even believes that under certain circumstances you could not only be capable of great violence, but also revel in it.

“But what does all this mean?” you ask.
“Nothing much as far as my report goes except maybe a half assed theory on why the drug didn’t seem to have an affect on your mind. I suppose for you it’s greater insight on yourself, but I’d wager that given your introspective nature, you’ve probably already pondered all of what I’ve just told at one time or another. It’s probably why you’re not really insulted by my words, because you probably agree with everything I said on some level.”

You don’t really have a response because what Lilith says is somewhat true. It’s actually pretty damn scary how accurate she was given that all her information was mainly based on Bobby’s words and the few conversations she’s had with you.

“Wow. Well I guess you didn’t go the typical route and say I was a closet lesbian or something.” You say.
“Oh, no. I don’t believe you’re a closeted lesbian.” Lilith chuckles.

“You just have some repressed bisexual tendencies, but that’s really a very minor point in the scheme of things. Anyway, I think we’re done. I’ll go grab your clothes and…”

Suddenly the door opens up and you see an older man with wild hair that’s completely white in color. He wears a bloody lab coat and has a pistol in one hand. You wonder if this Leslie.

“Sis, you need to get your ass out here. We’re under damn attack and we could use another pair of hands to hold a weapon out here.” He says.
“Who the hell is attacking?” Lilith says.
“Who do you think? Damn crazies from town and your GZ boys aren’t exactly the crack team they think they are. Just saw one of those fucking cowards run off…well before he got tackled and eaten by a bunch of those crazy fuckers.”
“Shit, they probably sent a bunch of fucking rookies. (Sigh) Fine, let’s go Leslie. Suzy, you might want to stay here.”

Lilith gets up to go with her brother, and the pair of them leaves the room. You don’t hear a click this time and you get curious…

You get up and try the door, and find it hasn’t been locked this time. They were probably in too much of a hurry to bother.

You sort of wonder if you shouldn’t take this opportunity to escape on your own terms, since you still have a bit of a trust problem with Lilith considering she did make a lab rat out of you. (Doesn’t matter if she was “nice” about it)

Of course maybe you’d be safer in here if there crazy cannibals out there.
> You leave the room
You’re not staying in here like a sitting duck. If whatever the things are that are attacking the house succeed in overrunning the place, you’d be trapped. Better you at least get to an area where you can run somewhere else, and with any luck you’ll be able to escape this place altogether.

You exit the room and quickly run down a corridor where you hope you’ll some stairs in that direction, because with as noisy as the other patients are, you have just as much fear that one of them is going to get out their locked rooms and attack you despite the fact Lilith says they’re secure.

You soon find the stairs leading up and the sounds of gunfire and shouts get even louder. You hear a lot of glass breaking as well.

All the action seems like it’s going on in the front part of the house, so that’s where you head away from and soon find yourself in the kitchen.

From the kitchen you can see a door leading to backyard. Looking out the window, it doesn’t appear that any of those crazy people are attacking from this direction so that’s one good thing. It also looks like the fence would be very hard to climb since it’s a smooth high wooden fence. If you were planning to escape, your chances of doing it this way have decreased.

Still, you also notice the tree in the yard with branches that hang over the fence. You probably could climb it and drop down if you really wanted to get away. Of course with all those things out there, that might not be the safest plan, even if they aren’t coming from this direction. You also feel a little vulnerable what with just wearing a hospital gown.

Then you hear the chaos going on within the house and the sounds of what you think to be those things finally getting into this place.

Wasting no more time, you look around for a weapon and a nasty looking machete catches your eye. You have no idea what one of these would be doing in the kitchen, but you’re taking it and getting the hell out of here.

As you’re opening up the door you hearing the sounds of battle getting more hectic, in fact it even sounds like it’s getting closer to your location…

“I’m gonna check around back to make sure none of them are…HOLY SHIT!” A uniformed man with a GZ logo on it exclaims when you turn to face him.

Having no idea who you are, seeing you hold a machete in your hand, the fact that you just opened the backdoor and him being totally surprised by your presence causes him to do the only logical thing a man in his position would do.

He thinks you’re a hostile and immediately opens fire on you with his rifle. You don’t have time to do anything except fatally catch bullets at that point.

When the chaos dies down, Lilith is annoyed about losing you as her control subject, but she gets over it.