WEDNESDAY


You wake up and find yourself on a small bed in a gray concrete room. There isn't much else in the room except a dresser and a lamp which is currently turned on. It almost feels like a cell except there is no door, just an entryway, which looks like it leads into a corridor.

You sit up and find that you're still fully clothed, so either Jack isn't a serial killing rapist or he was enough of a gentleman to put your clothes back on exactly right after he was done and is now playing mind games with you. Your girl parts and ass don't feel sore and you don't have a bad taste in your mouth so you're guessing that you weren't violated in any way. (You hope)

However the rest of your body certainly still aches from the kicks and physical abuse you took yesterday, but when you go to touch your head, you don't feel any bandages like you were expecting. In fact, you aren't even feeling any open wound that you're sure that you probably had. The side of your face doesn't feel to be scratched up either. Is Jack some sort of doctor?

You check your phone which was still in your pocket to see if anyone tried to call you, but nobody has. You thought maybe Peter would have at least tried calling considering you had his car last. If you ever get back home, you can only imagine how pissed he's going to be when he finds out what happened to it.

You sit in the bed for a while just wondering what exactly is going on and what you should do next. Honestly, you're drawing a blank. You had a plan, you tried to follow it and you thought you were succeeding and then it all went to shit yesterday. You're starting wonder if you're jinxed.

While you could spend your whole time being introspective like you have so many times before, the fact remains that you don't know where the hell you are and where your "white knight" is. Jack seems like an okay guy, but you really don't know anything about him except that he's helped you out quite a bit which would probably make the average person feel grateful, instead it makes you a bit suspicious and this prison like interior isn't exactly helping.

Still, you don't seem like you're being held captive either, so you take the opportunity to get up and leave your room.

When you enter the corridor you see several other open entryways leading to more small rooms. Since the left part of the corridor looks like it ends at a solid wall, you go right. You peer into a few of these rooms as you pass by to find that they aren't really furnished, but rather hold several boxes and containers. Some of them do contain furniture; none of it is arranged in a useable way. In general everything is stacked or positioned to resemble a warehouse more than anything else.

Maybe you are in some sort of warehouse, because so far the color of every walls you've seen is gray and they're concrete along with the floor and ceiling. Lights embedded in the ceiling provide illumination, but this whole place doesn't seem like a normal house of any kind, which you assumed Jack lived in, you guess not though.

You pass a set of stairs leading up, so you're guessing you're on the ground floor, the way you're currently heading it looks like a large open room ahead.

As you approach the large room, you start to hear noise. Sounds like it's coming from one the rooms ahead and to your right causing you to cautiously approach.

You peek around the corner and see Jack occupied and messing about with some sort of large radio system along with a few monitors set up. You hear garbled transmissions, but some of it you're making out sounds military related, something about marshal law.

"Well you don't need to spy on me, you're welcome to come in." Jack says without immediately looking in your direction. Apparently you're not as stealthy as you thought and Jack is very aware of his surroundings.

"Didn't mean to spy, just wasn't sure who or what I'd be possibly bumping into after finding myself in a strange place." You say standing in the entryway.
"Understandable. So I trust you're doing okay?" Jack asks while still messing about with his radio.
"Yeah, I mean I still ache a bit, but I'm more or less fine. Hey you're not medically trained are you? Because I thought I'd have some bandages or something what with getting smacked with a brick and glass shattering on the side on my head."
"Not professionally, but I used some medical gel on your wounds. Glad to see it worked well." Jack says finally turning to look at you.
"Worked well? I'm practically fully healed, is it magical or something?" you joke.
"No, just highly advanced…um…well if you really need to know, I shouldn't even have the stuff, but you can acquire a lot of stuff you shouldn't over the deep web." Jack says.
"I see. So I take it, this is where you live?
"Yeah, more or less now."
"Wait, so this is where your mom lived too?"
"What? Oh no. When I lived with mom, it was a regular house in town. In fact after she died, I still lived there, but when shit started getting hectic in town, I decided I better move somewhere less vulnerable so here I am at this gray building I bought years ago online. As you might have already seen, I got tons of shit stacked in rooms, told you I was a big of a hoarder."
"Well it certainly is very gray, must cost a lot to upkeep it."
"Not really, place sort of takes care of itself. Just never made a permanent living arrangement out of this place because…well it's a long story."

There's a bit of a pause in the conversation since Jack just abruptly stops talking and starts twisting knobs and then eventually waves his hands at the radio altogether and the garbled transmissions stop altogether when he turns it off.

"What are you trying to do?" you ask.
"I'm trying to listen in on a military frequency. Normally I can get clear messages from Fort Timons near Security City, but I'm not having much luck. All I know is marshal law has been declared in major cities across the country. Well that and apparently Ground Zero is still offering their shelters at low low prices. Those ads are fucking everywhere." Jack replies.
"Marshall law…that sounds pretty serious." You remark.
"Yeah, but I can't say I'm surprised with the way things have been going in the world lately. Anyway…so what are your plans?" Jack asks.
"I dunno. I've been trying to figure that out myself. I'm not having much luck either."
"Well, considering how fucked up things are in town, you're welcome to stay here. Got plenty of space, food and such."

It's a tempting offer. Really tempting, mainly because you don't have any idea what you're going to go, but you exhale and try to gather your thoughts.

"(Sigh) Look, I'm not ungrateful for probably saving my life yesterday. I didn't mind speaking with you before all that shit went down in the comic shop. Hell, you're even not bad looking and you're obviously got your shit together enough that you own your own damn building. I'm also fairly certain you were telling the truth about not being a serial killer."
"But?" Jack says predicting your lead in.

"But all of this…well my gut is telling me that something weird is going on with you. I don't know what exactly, but I imagine it's complicated. The funny thing is that it probably wouldn't even necessarily bother me, but you sort of caught me at an unusual point in my life. While I don't want to bore you with my life story, but I just recently went through an upsetting break up with my first and currently only boyfriend to date a couple days ago and I'm still trying to mentally deal with that along with all the other shit that's gone on in my life."

Jack continues to listen as you go on.

"You think YOU were a basement dweller? At least you seemed to be doing something productive, my whole life was just coasting by and living off of other people and the most recent one was my ex. I'm fairly certain he would have done anything to take care of me had I complied, but even basement dwellers have their limits I suppose and I just couldn't make that step. All of which left me up shit's creek without a boat, let along a paddle. I'm trying to make a real effort of being self-sufficient and I sort of feel like if I stayed here I'd just be falling back into my old routine of sponging off some guy."
"You wouldn't exactly be sponging off me…" Jack starts to say before you interrupt.
"Jack, I think you better stop right there, if you're about to imply what I think you're going to imply. I'm not a damn whore."
"What? No! I wasn't going to suggest that! I just meant I have so much that it's not like I'd mind if you stuck around. It's obviously dangerous out there and I'd be quite the asshole if I just threw you out."

You just hang your head down at this remark.

"Well that makes you better than my older sister, but it also makes this harder for me, because it would have been easier if you had been looking for some sort of cynical sex exchange like that."
"Wait…so you WANT me to treat you like a whore?" Jack asks confused.
"No! Fuck. I just…shit…I dunno what the hell I want…" you say putting your head in your hands.

At this point Jack tries to interpret your complete mess of explaining things.

"Okay, I think I know what you're getting at. You just got out of a relationship and you aren't really in the mood for another guy to be sniffing around you right now. You also want to be by yourself and try to make it on your own without help since you've never been truly independent your whole life. Am I right so far?" Jack asks.
"Yes." You reply.
"And while you aren't exactly thinking the worst of me right now, you're still wisely suspicious enough to wonder why the hell I helped you out if I didn't want something. Obviously there must be something odd about me, for all you know I've been stalking you or something."
"Well, basically."
"Okay, good. Now just let me explain my side of things."

You lean again the side of the entryway before Jack goes into his own speech.

"First, yes, I do think you're attractive and from what I know of you, I WOULD like to get to know you a lot better. I thought maybe there was something there during our nice conversation at the comic shop, but I dunno…I sort of…well let's just say I'm not exactly great at the whole asking someone out thing, so I lost my nerve and had to gather it again by leaving, and of course that's when those guys showed up. Not to mention I wasn't really planning on doing that anyway since I didn't expect to see anyone other than Jake at the register. Which brings me to the second point, I helped you, for the same reason I helped Jake yesterday, it was the right thing to do. I just wasn't so lucky with him as I was with you. I'm not saying I'm some hero, but I've always liked to believe I'm not a bad guy. So when I saw the opportunity to get you help, I did it. I assure you there was no ulterior motive."

At this point Jack fishes something out of his pocket. It's keys and a wad of money in a roll. He tosses them to you and you catch them.

"Do I want you to stay here because I like you? Yes, of course I would, but I can't just keep you here, if you don't want to be. You sound like you have very strong feelings about trying to make it on your own and being by yourself and I understand that. So since your car was trashed, I'm giving you mine. I'm not going to need it much longer…and no that doesn't mean I'm going to commit suicide. I just won't be needing it. As for the cash, well you'll need it more than I will too. You take them both and go live your life and hopefully it will be a good one."

You're pretty speechless. You've so rarely had anyone be this cool with you and this doesn't seem to be a "nice guy" act. If it were, he would've been calling you a complete cunt the moment you told him you weren't interested.

"I dunno what to say except thanks." You say
"Don't mention it. Come on I'll walk you out." Jack responds

Jack and you leave the radio room and enter the large open room which has a lot of boxes stacked in it's four corners. On one of the walls is a door, which Jack says, leads to the outside.

"Car is parked right outside, and is in good working condition. Um, just to let you know though we're several miles east outside of town. It will be quite the drive, but you should get back to town by nightfall. Remember, I want you to know you can come back here if it looks like the town is in just complete anarchy. I…I still worry about your safety. Anyway, just knock three times on the door and I'll know it is you."
"I'll certainly keep that in mind Jack."
"Okay, well…good luck Suzy." Jack says opening the door, which lets in a blinding brightness.

You look at Jack and then you suddenly hug him and then kiss him on the cheek. You figure it's the least you can do. Jack wasn't expecting it though; he returns the hug until you pull away.

You and he don't exchange any more words; you just turn around and leave as the door shuts behind you.

You get in the car, and count up the money to find that Jack has given you a thousand dollars in hundreds. Not much in the long term, but it would at least sustain you awhile.

You wonder if you should head back to town or just keep driving east and try to start over somewhere else.

You drive east

You come to the conclusion that there is literally nothing for you back in your hometown. Given the state it's in, it doesn't seem like there is much possibility there either and you'd be better off just trying to make it on your own.

This is very new territory for you just throwing complete caution to the wind like this, but you're determined to turn over a new leaf. This is going to be a brand new Suzy and your new life starts right now.

You start up the car and drive off.

As you drive you keep trying to form various plans about what you're going to do when you get to the next town. First thing to do will be to get a room somewhere… or maybe you should just sleep in the car. That would stretch your money out a lot more, but you can't just do that can you? You'll need to bathe every once in awhile! Whore baths in a public restroom perhaps?

As you're attempting to figure out how you're going to go about your new life, you start to get a headache just realizing how much hard work this is going to be. You turn the radio on in an effort to keep your mind occupied on something else.

"…remember our shelters are the best in the world. Your family's survival is important to us, so don't settle for imitations…"

"Ground Zero ads. Of course." You say.

You try to find a station that doesn't seem to be bought out by this company, but the only luck you have is a few doomsday preacher type stations. Since you're not really in the mood for that either, you turn the radio off and return to silence.

You continue to drive for some time. You notice you haven't even seen another vehicle on the road, which is a little eerie, gets even more so when it starts to get dark.

You haven't seen any signs of civilization for quite some time, just rows and rows of trees on either side. You never realized just how rural of an area you've lived in before.

Eventually the trees thin out a bit and you see a looming structure in the distance on your left.

It's a Grey Building.

"What the hell? Did I drive in a circle?" you say to yourself.

You can't imagine that you did considering you've been pretty much driving in a straight path the entire time. You suppose it MIGHT be possible since your attention hasn't exactly been completely focused since the drive itself has been so boring, but this seems pretty damn odd.

Odd or not you're back where you started and you stop your car near the Grey Building pretty frustrated at your situation.

"Shit!" you exclaim and bang on the driver's wheel.

You have half a mind to just continue on and go back to town, but you sort of feel like that would be giving up when really this is just a minor set back and you've had much worse ones.

Jack probably has a GPS, maps or something in that treasure trove of shit he collects and he'll probably be more than willing to help you out. You just hope he doesn't see this as a "sign" that you decided to stay after all.

You park along side the Grey building, get out and make your way towards the door.

Remembering that Jack told you to knock three times, you do so and the door opens up. Jack isn't there at the door though; maybe he's got it on an automated system.

The other thing that seems strange is that it's pitch black inside. You step just inside the entryway and still can't see shit. Not even the dim moonlight from the outside is providing any minimal illumination within the doorway.

"Hey Jack! It's me Suzy! Why are all your lights …Ungh!" you start to call out before you get smashed in the head and fall to the concrete floor.

"DIE INTERLOPER! THIS IS MY GREY BUILDING!" a horrible voice screams before you're forcibly pulled deeper inside and the door slams shut leaving you in complete darkness.

You try to get up to run, but a very strong force is keeping you down. You hear the sounds of a rusty chainsaw being started up followed by insane laughter.

In your last moments before the chainsaw starts ripping your flesh, you realize that you've made a terrible mistake.

You didn't drive in a circle and this isn't the GRAY Building.

This is the GREY Building

You don't understand it and you never will, but it doesn't matter, you're dead.