Chapter 434: New Friends
Later on in the night, Laz was grilling up some burgers on a propane grill he had bought from the store while Jill was getting out the plates and condiments.
"It feels weird," Jill said, holding out the two plates with an open bun on each.
"What does?" Laz asked, removing the pieces of medium well done meat with a metal spatula and landing them on the open buns. Laz then turned off the grill and got two small bags of chips. One for him and one for Jill.
"You’re going to teach me to be strong enough to lift a five thousand pound tractor frame and yet here we are, eating hamburgers... it just feels... kind of surreal..." Jill said, putting some mustard on her burger before setting down the plate.
Jill was shocked at how strong Laz actually was having only really seen a part of it today. Sure, after he had killed the ones who had trapped her underground, Jill knew Laz was strong. But this kind of strength was on another level from anything she could have dreamed about.
Looking around the camp, Jill saw many eyes on the two of them, even with others were getting on with drinks and making it a party. After all, just because someone super strong came around, they wouldn’t cancel their plans, especially considering he was like the rest of them. In the past they wouldn’t have trusted each other as much, but after the crackdown and silent kidnappings that took place at night, infected would only ever trust each other and no one else. But even that was only because they knew that one infected wouldn’t risk selling out another as the government wouldn’t let a single one of them go.
Maybe the country at large didn’t know what was happening, but to those who could read the signs in front of their faces, it was very clear.
Laz took a bite of his burger before he responded.
"Why should it be weird? It’s just different. Right now, we consume food to make ourselves full and give our bodies energy that let’s us work longer and become stronger. While I guess one could live on just the energy of the world they take in, where is the fun in that? If you no longer had to eat, could you still count as human?"
"That’s not...." Jill said before shaking her head. She didn’t mean that. What she was trying to say was on one hand they were doing something so human like eating while on the other, Laz had done something that no human could have ever done in the thousands of years of history humans possess.
"I know, I Know. But understand this... At the end of the day, we are still humans. We are just a little different that the ones that came before us."
"I guess," Jill said, before taking a bite of her burger.
"Oh. By the way. Now would probably be a good time to mention that the meat your eating belongs to a level 2 demon beast which is the equivalent to a human in the condensing stage. See, not too long ago, I had the pleasure of killing a whole lot of different demon beasts so I made sure to save the meat of some of the more juicy ones. In fact, I have no idea why the meat from a level 2 beast was in there since I was only interested in those in the foundation realm and the few in the void palace realm, but ah well. Just means that you have something unusual to eat for tonight. This is also why it’s hamburger as if it were stronger, I never would have ground it up. Still, the energy remains in it are quite strong so you should probably finish that burger quickly and start circulating the technique I showed you. But remember, build and reinforce the base... don’t just try to make the ball bigger. Good luck!" Laz said, giving the awestruck Jill a thumbs up. Hearing what he said, she was shocked surprised but then felt the energy flush into her system. Understanding what kind of opportunity Laz had given her, she quickly munched down the rest of the hamburger, sucked down a whole bottle of water and went into the tent to quickly circulate the energy through her system. Keeping it too long just in her stomach would lead to a very bad end.
Laz laughed as she walked in and finished eating before laying back and pulling out a bottle of whiskey and two shot glasses. Laz then looked up at the sky and the stars, thinking about those who he had lost, those who he had left and what meaning was there to any of it?
’Out here on the edge of nowhere... I guess I’m not alone though. That would make things worse I guess,’ Laz thought to himself. After the incident in Tin Cup, Laz parted with that reporter Ashley after telling her everything he wanted to say and answering all of her questions. She gave him some contact info including a secret way to get a hold of her before they separated and really didn’t know what had happened to her after that until he saw a news story in a run down diner about how she had been fired from her job after posting a video interview that went viral with almost two hundred million views the first week it was online. While it had been taken down time and time again, that didn’t stop it from popping up over and over again either. As the saying goes, once it’s online, it’s on there forever.
While Laz wasn’t sure, he pretty much assumed the video was about him and his interview.
’I guess I should check it out when I get a chance?’ Laz half asked and half told himself as he started drinking straight from the bottle. The whiskey was ok and all, but to feel anything, Laz needed to down an entire bottle or two within a couple of minutes and using a shot glass was nothing more than a ritual to toast before he drank.
A big bald man sat down on a stump a couple feet away from Laz and looked over at him with piercing eyes. Laz just ignored him and took another bottle of whiskey out from his pouch, although he hid it from the man and just made it seem like he was reaching within his coat.
"You’re him, aren’t you?" The big, bald man said, with a nervous gulp.
Laz looked over and noticed that the stare the man was giving wasn’t piercing, but frightened. Laz hadn’t been bothering to even check his surroundings with his sense as he didn’t feel even a hint of bloodlust here.
"Him?" Laz asked back, staring at the man.
"Him... him him... the one from the video?" The man said, nervously pulling out his phone and showing Laz the video which he assumed was from his time with Ashley. He didn’t recognize it at first since it didn’t involve Laz talking from the front seat to Ashley in the back. In fact, it looked like they were relaxing by two plush chairs in front of a campfire in some sort of log structure.
Laz had to admit, that woman knew how to edit.
"Ha. Amazing," Laz said, leaning back again and pouring two drinks, one for the bald man and one for himself. Laz then picked up the glass and looked at the bald man.
"Oh. Uh Yeah."
"Laz." Laz said as the bald man picked up his drink.
"David... but you can just call me Dave... I mean, if you want..." Dave said, feeling a little shy. Laz laughed and clinked glasses with him before downing the shot in one gulp. Laz then proceeded to pour them both another.
"Uh. I... well besides wanted to come over and ask if this was you, I also saw that these normal drinks are a bit too weak for you, right?" Dave asked, looking at Laz nervously like he would saw the wrong thing and Laz would attack him.
"Sadly," Laz admitted before screwing the top back on the bottle. He was just drinking the whiskey to finish it off. He had a few bottles of stronger stuff but he hated waste.
"I uh... well if you wouldn’t mind..."
"WOULD YOU JUST SPIT IT OUT?" Came a females voice from off in the distance, around where an old pickup was parked with quite a lot tied up in the back.
"I’M GETTING THERE. YOU SHOULD HAVE COME OUT YOURSELF SINCE YOU WANTED TO KNOW SO BADLY IF IT WAS HIM," Dave yelled back.
"I DIDN’T THINK YOU CLAM UP LIKE A SCHOOL GIRL ON PROM NIGHT JUST FROM THIS," came the females voice back, causing Laz to laugh in spite of himself.
"YOU’RE THE ONE WHO PUT HIM ON YOU CHEAT LIST AFTER SEEING THAT VIDEO SO DON’T GO TALKING TO ME ABOUT CLAMING UP," came Dave’s reply back to the woman.
Laz’s jaw just dropped.
"He didn’t mean that. Honest. I mean... I never thought I would met you and everything and then tonight here you were just showing up and then I didn’t know for sure it was you since you acted so differently than during the interview and your looks are a bit less flashy without the lighting works and...."
"Now look at who can’t spit it out?" Dave said, grinning.
"You bastard..." the woman replied back.
Laz could tell this woman was one of the ones from the ’audience’ that Dave was showing off with earlier. While she wasn’t stick thin, she was toned, tanned and blond with a friendly but wild smile that showed she didn’t take shit from anyone and did what she wanted.
"Yeah. This little fire cracker is my wife, Ruth. And the quiet one over there is my sister-in-law, Shelby," Dave said, pointing at the other women he had been holding up who was coming towards them with a big glass bottle that she easily carried despite it being almost half the size of her.
"Anyway, I saw you drinking and wondered if you wanted to try something a little stronger?" Dave asked with a grin.
