Day 49: Early Afternoon - Tasty Burger

[feartehreaper]

[ Continued from here. ]

The damn burger place was actually the last place Haseo would have wanted to revisit after the previous week, but there was little other choice when practically dragging the distraught Endrance along with him and trying to find an appropriate shelter: he couldn't be certain anywhere else close would have somewhere to sit

Comments

[its_the_mileage]

"Damn, I was really looking forward to that number three," Indy muttered in all seriousness. "Sounds like you've been here before; what do you recommend?" Given that the menu was made up almost entirely of different permutations of hamburgers (one patty, two patties, cheese, no cheese, etc.) and chicken, it wasn't exactly an excruciating choice, but Pilgrim would probably like the chance to play expert. The guy sounded slightly down--unusual for him.

"You know, I don't eat these things all that often. Looks like they're a big seller now, though," he added conversationally, deciding to leave asking about Pilgrim's mood for later (or possibly never, especially if it turned around). It was true; he could think of a few places that served hamburgers--more in the city than in Fairfield--but not many. They'd started calling them Salisbury steaks during the last war, out of anti-German sentiment. Indy guessed the same thing would probably happen again during this one. Either modern America considered itself on good terms with Germany, or it didn't care about such petty issues as the names of foods anymore. From what he knew of human nature, Indy was inclined to think it was the former.

He remembered belatedly to take off the cap and coat now that he was indoors, then went back to the earth-shattering decisions of patties and cheese. It still rankled him a little that they didn't look like the pictures. Wasn't that false advertising?

[vsyourface]

Scott shook his head. "No, first time here. 's just a universal truth of fast food. They build up the nicest looking burger they can for the photo, and like, 99.99999% of the time the real thing is just the slapdash version someone in the back puts together in about 30 seconds," he explained, rubbing his eyes and peeling off his bright yellow rain coat to match Indy. "Still a big seller, though, yeah. It's super fast, and it tastes decent enough, so whatever."

Scott went up to the counter and slipped the cashier his coupon, picking a random meal from the board. He wasn't sure why he was getting food again already when his breakfast at Twin Pines hadn't been that long ago. Maybe he was just getting too used to the Institute's three-full-meals-a-day program. Not that he was complaining; it was way better than living off ramen, bread, and whatever Ramona was willing to make him. He didn't like the idea of getting dependent on this much food, though, if only because he didn't want to get fat.

After he finished ordering, he went back to Indy. There was a long-ish, awkward silence before Scott spoke again. "So, uh, I found something you'd be interested in last night," he said, trying to slowly work himself back into a more useful state of mind. "I met up with this guy I kinda know, Logan." Just thinking about comic book superstar Wolverine made him want to skip straight to asking about what was really on his mind, but Scott shook his head, making himself focus on his explanation: "We followed some guys into the big kitchen freezer together, and there was a loose floor panel back there that lead to the basement."

[its_the_mileage]

"Fast food, huh?" He'd never heard the term, but he kind of liked it: short and descriptive. And although the prices were outrageous by his standards, the number of young people around told him they must not be bad these days. Sort of the modern American version of street food, Indy figured.

He stepped forward to order a hamburger (two patties, no cheese), which he was told came with French fries and a Coca-Cola from the fountain. Not to mention a side of fish-eye from the guy behind the counter. Indy handed over the coupon with a deliberately ingratiating smile and stepped back just ahead of Pilgrim to wait while the workers prepared their trays.

He was trying to drum up the right thing to say when Pilgrim saved him the trouble by talking about what he'd been up to last night. "So you found a way down?" Indy asked quickly, turning toward Pilgrim with keen interest. "What did you see; what's down there?" A secret passage in the kitchen freezer! Well, well. That suggested something worth hiding; Indy just hoped it wasn't an intentional false lead.

[vsyourface]

Scott watched Indy place his order, which was just incredibly bizarre in context with the rest of his day thus far. He was already focusing intensely on the fiction surrounding everyone, so watching one of cinema's greatest heroes ordering a McGeneric Burger with fries and a Coke was enough to make his brain feel like breaking all over again.

He shook his head again when Indy turned to him. Snap out of it. Remember what Keman said? Stop getting all weird in the head about this already. How is this much weirder than anything else has been so far? he told himself. Seeing Indy looking so interested to hear what he had to say helped him to keep his head in the game. "We only saw the first room - and it definitely looked like there were other rooms - and it was freaking gigantic. It's like a ballroom down there, fancypants chandelier and everything." He grimaced, then added, "And in just that first room, there was a big, bad boss monster on guard. It was red all over and armoured in some places, with two heads full of sharp teeth. A few feet taller than a person, too, from the looks of it."

[its_the_mileage]

"Orthrus?" wondered Indy, who had mythological creatures on the brain after running into that obvious minotaur imitation. "Did it look like a big two-headed dog?" He tried to remember if there was a source for how Hercules was supposed to have slain it. He was pretty sure he'd once seen a 6th century B.C. depiction that showed it dead of an arrow wound to the chest, but if this version was armored (and probably just as bipedal and angry as the minotaur), that might be a lost cause even if they could come up with arrows.

The workers finished filling their trays at the same time (that was fast, Indy thought), and he motioned for Pilgrim to follow him to a table where they could talk. Once they sat down, he continued, "You did the right thing to back off for the time being. I'm all for making things up on the spur of the moment, but that sounds like one lab rat we don't want to deal with without some kind of plan." Indy sampled one of the French fries; it was surprisingly good. "Who's this Logan fellow?" he asked as an afterthought once he'd swallowed.

The hamburger came in a suspiciously squashed-looking paper wrapper--obviously prepared ahead of time, although at least it was still hot enough to eat. Indy unfolded the wrapper to reveal a meal that did, indeed, not look a hell of a lot like the picture over the counter. Damn.

[vsyourface]

Scott shook his head. "No, it was a two-legged thing with arms. It breathed fire, too. Logan and I just barely missed getting roasted," he explained, his expression tensing when he remembered just how hot it had been near that fire blast. Shaking off the memory, he added, "Man, you'd think someone would have mentioned it. I asked about the place on the board like it was a game, so someone could've at least given me some hints about the first boss monster."

They both grabbed their trays after that and headed over to an area with free tables that the regular townsfolk seemed to be staying away from. It was almost kind of adorable in its sadness when Indy opened the hamburger wrapper to find the semi-squashed piece of work inside. If Scott could have injected the bun with air, the patties with more meat and real juices, and the veggies with that garden fresh essence (whatever it was), he would have. At least he seemed to like the fries, anyway.

"He's, uh, just someone I ran into last night. He looked like someone I knew, so, uh, yeah," he explained, uncertain how exactly to describe to Indy how he had known to stop and talk to Logan. "If you ever see him, he's a short guy, but pretty well-muscled." A good line came to mind at that, and Scott managed a small grin. "And he has sideburns of great justice." Okay, maybe it wasn't that good a line, but Scott felt like if he didn't slip in something that was kind of light-hearted, he was just going to deflate into nothing eventually.

[its_the_mileage]

Indy gave Pilgrim a slightly incredulous look. "It breathed fire?" he repeated. Once they sat down and he had a chance to consider it, though, he decided he bought that one. Pilgrim might be overenthusiastic, but he'd never struck Indy as a liar, and it was hard to be wrong about something like that. Must just be some kind of pyrotechnics (flamethrower attached to its head?), but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.

"Have you seen a fire extinguisher around anywhere?" he asked. "Although it sounds like it'd be smarter to sneak past it if we can." It wouldn't hurt to have some insurance, though, and aside from the weight and awkwardness of carrying it around, a fire extinguisher could have a lot of other uses. The big problem might be the toxicity of some of the chemicals they used in them (assuming those hadn't changed), but hopefully a space as large as the ballroom Pilgrim had described would make that less of an issue.

Well-muscled? That didn't sound like another one of the adolescent cronies he'd expected. Indy wondered briefly how likely it was that the guy could fight. "Great justice?" he questioned, taking the first bite of the hamburger. "What do you mean?" Was this Logan some sort of crimefighter? What did his sideburns have to do with anything?

Actually, the hamburger wasn't half bad either, despite the flatness. Indy nodded his approval.

[vsyourface]

"What if the next room just has, I dunno, two of those things, though? We'd be even more screwed," Scott pointed out when Indy suggested sneaking past. Scott couldn't claim credit for that argument; Logan had laid the smackdown quite well when Scott had made the same sneaking suggestion. "You're right, it'd probably be best to get, like, an extinguisher and some more weapons or something before we go in. We know what's down there to start, at least, and knowing is half the battle, right?" he said, this time cribbing from G.I. Joe instead of Wolverine.

Scott tucked into his own meal a little, not having eaten much of the one he'd ordered at Twin Pines. Doyleton didn't make that bad a Heart-Attack-In-A-Bun, he had to admit. "Anyway, never mind," he answered to the bit about the sideburns. "He's just got a face you'd look up to. Like a superhero," he clarified, hoping that didn't make him sound too gay. Did that sound gay?

Is bacon delicious? he could imagine Wallace answering.

Shut up, Imaginary Wallace, Scott thought back.