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 stay in the room

You might be reverting back to old habits, but if there is some hectic bullshit going on out there, then you want to avoid it. They can handle it and you decide to be extra cautious and block the door with a chair.

You hear the sounds of gunfire above you. That isn't what bothers you so much as it's the growling and yelling that sounds like it's coming from nearby. You remember that there are other "patients" on this same floor.

More time passes and you still hear gunshots and the inhuman noises. You are starting to worry that it's quite possible this house is going to be overrun by these things, and you haven't even seen one. This fear becomes even more intense when you stop hearing the gunshots and only hear the guttural noises nearby. You start to feel like you've made another bad choice.

Suddenly there's an attempt to open the door only to be stopped by the chair you've propped against it. This is followed by a loud bang on the door, which scares the hell out of you.

"Suzy! What the hell? Is this door barricaded?" you hear Lilith's voice shout.
"Yeah…is it safe?" you ask.
"It's safe in that we're not in any immediate danger, but we gotta start getting the hell outta here. Open up!"

Wasting no time you move the chair and the door opens up. Lilith throws your clothes at you and you can hear those awful noises in the corridor. Yelling and banging.

"Here. Get dressed and don't worry about the noises, the other subjects aren't getting out of those rooms anytime soon." Lilith says.

You're not as sure as Lilith is about that, so you just get dressed as fast as you can and exit the room with her.

"So what's going on?" you ask as you follow her.
"What's going on is Leslie and I are heading to that GZ Shelter after he and I gather a few things. The crazies from town are spilling out from it and we don't want to be here in case another wave comes. I was hoping to have more time to pack, but I guess we can't have everything."

You and Lilith get to the ground floor and finally see the house proper. It's a bit of a mess now probably due to all the running around and shooting, but obviously was nice at one time. Then you enter the front room and see several broken windows, and couple of dead bodies. One of them is a uniformed man with his throat ripped out and several slashes across his face.

Nearby him is a body of a disheveled looking woman with several bullet holes in her body and head. She still has a chunk of flesh in her teeth and even in death her eyes display a crazed look. It sort of freaks you out.

"Um, that guy in the uniform, shouldn't someone shoot him in the head?"
"What? No. These aren't zombies. They're just well…rabid." Lilith chuckles. "Headshots aren't even necessary to kill them, though it sure as hell helps."

A couple more uniformed men with the Ground Zero insignia on them walk into the room holding rifles.

"Place seems to be all secure Dr. Morningstar. No other hostiles in the house or around the house." One of them says.
"Good. Glad not all of you were incompetent. Wait, are you two the only ones left?"
"Afraid so doctor." One of them remarks.
"Oh well. Okay, I want you two to stand guard out front. Make sure there isn't another horde or whatever coming our way and if there is, run back in here and tell me immediately."

The two uniformed men nod and leave out the front door which is now half hanging off the hinges. You and Lilith both take a quick look outside and see the bodies of several crazies as well as GZ security. In the driveway you see that Lilith's truck is heavily shot up and a couple bodies of crazed townies lie next to it.

"Great, these assholes never learned the concept of one shot one kill. (Sigh) Guess we're all just piling into the Ground Zero van." Lilith says shaking her head.

Lilith continues looks around a bit more at her partially destroyed house.

"Well at least nobody has to clean this up this time. I remember the many many times I'd come home from work and I'd find Leslie had left a damn mess all over the house, much worse than this sometimes even. A lot more bodies too. Still remember the disorder he left when he was trying to write a poem for me on one of our past anniversaries. But it was such a lovely and thoughtful sentiment so I wasn't too mad…anyway have you made your decision of what you're going to do yet?" Lilith asks.

You still really aren't sure and lacking an answer, you ask a question.

"What would I do at the shelter again?
"Well I told you, I'm not in charge of assignments, but I'm sure there would be some sort of position there for you. Ground Zero doesn't waste resources."
"I see."

Lilith looks at you with a squint.

"You…still don't trust me do you? Don't answer. I know you don't. (Sigh) I suppose I don't blame you. Look, if you don't want to go with us you don't have to, I meant that. Still, I think it would be foolish if you didn't."
"It might be equally foolish if I went with you. Who knows what the hell is in store for me in an underground shelter." You say.
"True, but think on this. If I really had anything bad in store for you there, don't you think I would've just had security and my brother restrain you and take you there against your will anyway? I'm giving you a choice. You can go with us, or not. One of your problems Suzy is you don't take chances, you stick with what you think is safe and look where that has gotten you. But if safety is your main concern, I'm just going to say that staying here isn't exactly the safe option. This house isn't secure, you'll have a few days of food and water at best and if the crazed townsfolk don't come ripping this place apart again, there are always just the plain opportunists that are no doubt lurking about as well. You don't even have a vehicle to leave this place. Mine got all shot up and we're taking the other one. Do you even have a plan if you stay here?"

You don't…as usual.

"No." you reply.
"Well I'd think your choice would be simple then. Anyway, I have to bags to pack and when I'm done, I'm going to need to know what your answer is Suzy." Lilith remarks and leaves you by yourself.

You walk around the ground floor of the house a bit, just looking around. You start to form various thoughts in your head about how this place could be made more defensible. You just aren't sure if you're up to the task though.

You briefly consider the idea of somehow overpowering one of those GZ security guys outside and driving off with the truck yourself, but you aren't confident that you'd be successful. You then wonder if you could successfully flirt with one of them…

You head outside and speak with both of the guards while attempting to be as charming as you can. You even manage to muster up the fortitude to blatantly make sexual innuendo and such.

It doesn't work. One of them is gay and the other is happily married and even if that wasn't the case, they get irritated at the fact that you're distracting them from their duty and start telling you to go away. You realize your plan isn't going to work and you give up.

"Christ Suzy, some seductress you are." You mutter to yourself.

This brings you back to your original two choices and both of those have the potential to go to shit for various reasons, but it's all you got.

You go to the shelter

It does seem very likely that if Lilith were going to do something to you, she would've done it already. Plus you haven't given her any trouble like she wanted, so that's has to be in your favor.

Also, she makes some very good points about staying here. Civilization as you know it seems to be failing hard and you aren't exactly the "survivalist" type to deal with it. Seems like it would be too late to start learning how in the final hour too, even if you had the desire.

While you aren't exactly sure how life would be in an underground shelter, you can't help think that you'd be more "at home" there. After all it's just an oversized basement right?

It's a risk, but it's one you feel more confident about mainly because it requires little effort on your part. You sit on one of the few non-broken chairs and wait for Lilith.

A few moments pass and you hear footsteps coming up from the basement accompanied by some swearing and more footsteps in one of the other rooms.

"Where the fuck did I put that fucking thing? Shit, better not have lost…oh good here it is." You hear Leslie say before he soon enters the front room where you're waiting for Lilith.

Leslie carries two sizable black bags and a machete when he enters the room. He stares at you for a moment, which makes you a bit uncomfortable.

"Is my sister still upstairs?" he asks, but it's more like an order due to his tone.
"Yeah." You answer.
"Typical. She's the one dragging me to this fucking shelter and I'm ready before she is. I swear I don't want to go to this fucking place. Let alone working there. The idea of becoming part of a corporate fucking machine is just a fucking anathema to me. Probably have some little shit bean counter for a boss telling me he wants something done at a certain time. I fucking hate shit like that. I fucking hate it. I don't like being told what to do, when to do it, or ANYTHING!"

At this point Leslie begins shaking his machete in a violent manner and you see his eyes briefly roll into the back of his head like he's going to go into a convulsion.

Then all of a sudden his eyes snap back and he addresses you again.

"But the things we do for love right?" Leslie says.
"I guess so."
"Mm. Speaking of love, my sister has told me a bit about you and it's too bad you and my nephew didn't work out. Guess he'll be stuck with his shrew of a sister now. If he's smart, he'd ditch her and go for his other one…can't remember her fucking name…really quiet…"
"Helen?" you answer.
"Yeah, that's her. You sort of remind me of her a bit. You're prettier of course, but same sort of wallflower personality. You get molested as a child? Daddy ever make you suck his dick when Mommy wasn't around? Something like that?"
"No!" you say not expecting such a question.
"Hm, interesting. Would've thought you had been, especially since I heard your family was a bit on the dysfunctional side."
"Well they weren't THAT dysfunctional."

Leslie gives you a look of annoyance, which makes you a little tense, well more tense than when he was waving his machete around earlier.

"Oh. I see. That was a shot at MY family right?" Leslie exclaims.
"I didn't…" you start to say.
"No, YOU know what you meant and so did I! Is that why you didn't stay with my nephew? Felt you were too good for him?"
"That's not the reason, I…"
"Pfft, I don't want to fucking hear it! Here I am trying to make the effort to have friendly fucking conversation with you and you're fucking insulting me! Well fuck you too bitch!" Leslie says and when you see him starting to walk in your direction you begin to get worried, but instead he storms out the front door.

Just as you're recovering from that incident of Morningstar insanity, Lilith comes walking down from upstairs carrying a couple bags.

"What's going on down here? I heard my brother ranting as usual. Everything okay?" she asks.
"I dunno. He started talking to me and I tried to be friendly, but he took what I said out of context and got really pissed at me."
"Oh. Yeah, been there before. My brother's not very good at social interaction unless that other person also happens to be an asshole. Nevermind him, you're fine. Anyway, did you make your decision? Are you going with us?"
"Well…I was, but now I'm not sure…"
"What? Is it my brother? I told you forget about him. The shelter is a big place! Chances are you're never going to have to interact with him again when we get there."

Lilith puts her bags down and walks over in an attempt to reassure you.

"Come on, you don't really want to stay here do you? Dangerous cannibals and criminal types, scavenging for sustenance, no proper toilets, I assure you Suzy at the GZ shelter you won't have to worry about any of that shit."
"Well, okay." You say.
"Great, ah damnit!" Lilith suddenly remarks and puts her hand on her lower back.
"What's wrong?"
"I dunno. It's my back. Shit. I think all that damn running around, shooting, lifting and carrying heavy things took its toll. I really need to start exercising on a regular basis. Damn. (Sigh) I hate to ask, but could you carry my bags outside, you can just hand them to those two guards if you want."
"Oh, sure okay." You say.

You pick up the bags and head out the door with Lilith slowly walking behind.

You approach the two guards who are still standing on the porch and just as you're holding the bags out for them to take, you feel a sharp needle going into the side of your upper arm.

You drop the bags and turn around in horror, clutching your arm. Lilith once again holds a needle in her hand and you're soon feeling the affects.

"Sorry Suzy, but this was the ONLY way GZ was going to let me take you. I never lied though; you will be given a position to contribute to the community. You'll continue to be a test subject…though I'm afraid it will involve a little more than just questions and some blood tests this time."
"You…you…" is all you manage to utter before you collapse on the ground and unconsciousness begins to take affect.

You can still hear some of the conversation as you start to pass out.

"Carry her to the truck and Leslie, you can carry my bags since your short temper nearly cost GZ a perfectly good subject."
"Dunno why you just didn't take that bitch to begin with." Leslie remarks.
"Because I wanted to see if she'd ultimately go with what was easy or actually grow as a person and make the harder decision. She failed which is why she might as well be put in a GZ experiment lab. She's obviously not a learning animal, better her life goes towards something more useful."

You're out for the remainder of the day, in fact you're out of it for quite a few days. By the time you wake up you're strapped to a surgical table with metal restraints with a lot medical equipment in the room. A bright light shines overhead.

Fear overwhelms every fiber of your being. You being to call out for help, but the group of masked doctors in a circle nearby don't look like they're going to be doing that.

"The subject is up, chief." One of them says.
"Yeah, I could tell by her screaming. Okay, let's get her started with the injections first, then I guess we'll see the reaction and go from there." The head doctor says.
"Should be interesting." Another says.
"Maybe. I'm just glad we didn't get that asshole Leslie Morningstar assigned to our group. Dodged a bullet on that one. Let those fuckers in C Wing put up with him and his sister."

You panic, you struggle, you scream, you beg, you plead, you even call out for Bobby at one point, but none of it matters. The Ground Zero doctors begin to subject you to their experiments.

You have no idea how long this goes on for. Days, weeks, months? You never see Lilith or Leslie again and your world becomes to the surgical room to the observation room. You never see the rest of the Ground Zero facility.

Your body is wracked with pain and goes through several ugly changes; your mind eventually becomes broken to the point of insanity though occasionally you have moments of clarity and that's probably when you're at your worst since you're practically wishing to die. Several times the doctors prevent you from killing yourself.

The doctors themselves don't really talk to you, but rather with each other like you're not even there. You do hear one mention in passing about the world being nuked, but that hardly matters given the torture you're being subjected to, indeed dying in a nuclear fire would be much kinder at this point.

Eventually through all their experimentation you become little more than a wild animal. Almost like what people back in town became, but even worse. It gets to a point where you actually manage to break what they thought to be strong enough shackles and kill three of the doctors experimenting on you.

Ground Zero security is called in and after enough bullets you are finally put down.