"Lockdown"

Chapter Two

Chapter by Purity Flower

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha or any of its characters.

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Soon her irate huffing morphed into hopeless sighs as minutes quickly turned into an hour, an hour turned into three and alas, there was still no progress. With her silvered haired companion, to Kagome's frustration, calmly trailing her footsteps as they passed though corridor to corridor.

How could he be so clam? Were there not terrorists to worry about? If he did not value his safety he could at least show some courtesy for other's, but Kagome soon learned that this arrogant being of a man showed very little compassion and how he loved to taunt her until she snapped, as if she was his sick source of amusement.

"This is getting to be redundant! Office after office after office after office!" Kagome exasperated as they passed, yet another empty office.

"Oh look there." Sesshoumaru said with mild concern

"What?" Kagome joyfully yelled, maybe he found an exit! They could be free! They could be…

"More office." He flatly responded, quickly squashing her hope of him finding something of use.

Kagome pursed her lips together to form a feminine scowl while walking further down the perpetual hallway and then finally reprimanded, "You know…you really aren't helping at all! I try to be friendly, but you complain I talk too much! I try to look for a way out, but you get my hopes up! You need to start pulling your weight mister!"

"Oh really?" Sesshoumaru asked in an amused fashion as he raised his eyebrow. He then looked more closely at his surroundings and asked, "Do you have any idea as to where you have been leading us for the past three hours?"

"…" Kagome stilled, she forgot to keep track. With some much on her mind, so much to worry about she completely forgot where she was going. She didn't even know the alarms yet, never mind the layout of the overly expansive building. Heck, she even got lost coming back from the bathroom and that was just yesterday, "…no."

"Well I have." He smirked while arrogantly telling her. "Now, I suggest that we stop this futile roaming, head back to where we came from and resume searching after some rest."

"Why the sudden urge to go back?" Kagome questioned as her tiny foot tapped the polished floor and leaned against a tiny plaque that rested on the wall

"It's getting late and obviously the direction you have so skillfully chosen for us to wander like idiots in is obviously turning up fruitless." Sesshoumaru flatly answered

She narrowed her and after several moments replied defeated, "We will take a short break. Lead the way Yoda…You apparently think you know everything…" Kagome turned her heels and headed back, slightly jogging to keep up with Sesshoumaru's, now, long and quick strides.

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"I'm getting cold." Kagome rhetorically said as she ate her last bite of her candy bar that she found in someone's abandoned handbag, with the power off and the backup generator keeping the building dimly lit, it was beginning to become colder with the loss of the heating system, "What time is it anyway?"

"Around six o'clock." Sesshoumaru said after he glanced at his shiny watch, "I don't think you'll be going on that date of yours."

"…Too bad, I kind of liked the guy too." Kagome said with rummaging though the room. She was trying to find something to give her warmth, anything a coat, a sweatshirt, scarf, a hand towel…at this point she wasn't picky.

"So anyway, tell me more about this Black Science thingamajig." Kagome asked with her back turned to Sesshoumaru, while closing a drawer "Do you really brainwash people or was that just another one of your witty remarks to try to scare me?"

"Ah ha!" Kagome smiled as she picked up a discarded sweatshirt she found in a closet. She carefully brought it to her nose, "Smells clean and I'm desperate. Oh! But I bet the Great Sesshoumaru has to comment on this…maybe 'you'll get ticks or fleas' or 'that might have lice' or 'the person whom that belongs to might have a rash of some kind' or…or…Sesshoumaru?"

She quickly turned around, but Sesshoumaru wasn't there.

"Sesshou-Maru?" Kagome called out is a loud whisper and poked her head out of the lonely office door, "Sesshoumaru!"

A distant thump, thump, thump was all that could be heard and the fact that the lights would flicker didn't help to ease Kagome's fast growing fears. She retreated back into the safety of the office…why would he just up and leave? Could she really trust him? Oh God! Was he the terrorist?

She then turned her head to once again look into the hall and…

"AHH!" Kagome screamed as her eyes locked onto a chiseled chest and then slightly calmed as her eyes met with his face, "Sesshoumaru! You scared the hell out of me! Where did you go?"

"…the restroom." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world

"Oh."

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"I got an extra bottle of water from the machine." Sesshoumaru said as he walked back into the office and sat down on the floor near Kagome

"Time?" Kagome asked

"Eleven o'clock, I suggest you get some rest." Sesshoumaru suggested, "If nothing else it will pas away some time instead of you just staring blankly at the wall."

Kagome slowly turned her head to the side and gave him a look that clearly read: you aren't helping the situation and spun her head back so that she once again, gazed at the barren wall, "Anyway what's with this lockdown shenanigan?"

"…We're stuck in a building…" Sesshoumaru slowly replied as he rested his eyes.

"Thank you and to think I survived all my life without you, Captain Obvious." Kagome sarcastically told him, "I mean, why is there a lockdown?"

"Breech in security." Sesshoumaru answered, obviously it was a breech in security of some kind; did he think of her as an idiot?

"…you aren't helping." Kagome said, now tired of the useless and one-sided conversation.

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"BANG"

Kagome's head sprang up from Sesshoumaru's chest. Sesshoumaru's…chest? Somehow during the cold night they must have moved closer to one another. Well, at least it was a way to keep warm.

But that wasn't what startled Kagome; it was that rather loud noise that was coming from the end of the long hallway.

She poked Sesshoumaru, "Get up" but he didn't stir, "Sesshoumaru!" Kagome harshly whispered as she put a freezing cold metal container on his cheek.

"What?" he replied with his eyes were still closed

"Did you hear that?" Kagome asked as she rearranged the baggy sweatshirt she wore.

"Hear what?" he absently said

"There was a bang from the end of that hallway; it must have been loud if I heard it from here." Kagome softly said

Receiving Sesshoumaru's attention, "Do you know what it was?"

"Would I be asking you if I did?" she retorted

"If by any chance there is a threat in the building, this office is locked and we aren't visible from the hallway…we are safe in here for now, it's late so go back to sleep. Although I highly doubt anyone else is here." Sesshoumaru somewhat groggily told Kagome, trying to lessen her more than apparent worries.

Kagome said nothing, but held onto Sesshoumaru's arm like the Jaws of Life and tried to ease her way back to sleep, however it seemed to be a hard task to do.

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Kagome felt her slumbering form be carelessly tossed aside. "Ouch!" Kagome complained as she peered at Sesshoumaru getting up from the hard carpeted floor.

"Its morning." He simply stated

"Do you think it safe leaving the office?" Kagome asked, "I heard someone last night!"

"I highly doubt that, everyone who has enough since leaves during these alarms…only a fool would stay." Sesshoumaru replied as he poured some two day old coffee into a paper cup and gave her a look that was suggesting that he was referring to her as the fool.

Kagome eyed him dryly, "Well you didn't leave either, you hypocrite."

"I was incapable of hearing the alarms; you just ignored them like a fool." Sesshoumaru said in between sips of his lukewarm drink

"Oh yes, I almost forgot you were in a 'self-hypnotic trance' my apologies to you, the sociopath." Kagome mocked while waving her hands in the air

"Now what did I say about being nice?" Sesshoumaru condescendingly asked

"Hey where are go going?" Kagome yelled as he walked out of the door. Kagome quickly followed him, "Well?"

"I am going to investigate the cause of the 'noise' that you claimed to hear." Sesshoumaru replied, "I highly doubt that I will find anything though."

"Are you calling me a liar?" Kagome demanded defensively

They continued to walk down the cool hallway, which seemed to go on forever until they came to a room which caught their attention. It was like a pitter patter, very soft, you could only hear these noises if everything else was in complete silence

"I heard something!" Kagome whispered as she pointed to the adjacent closed door, "I heard something and I know you did too! Don't lie! It came from that room right there, the one I'm pointing at!"

Sesshoumaru was about to turn the handle when Kagome said, "What are you doing? What if there it is a terrorist or something in there? Shouldn't we arm ourselves with a weapon before we go blindly into a potentially dangerous room?"

Sesshoumaru turned to her a smirked, "Yes, let's go back and get the hat stand so that way when we encounter this terrorist we can 'hat stand' him to death."

Kagome was not amused, this wasn't a laughing matter! "No we can go bake him some cookies!"

Sesshoumaru let out a small, demure chuckle and then turned the small steel door knob to Kagome's horror. Mice.

"What is this place?" Kagome asked as she saw several cages that contained mice and other large rodents which Kagome didn't want to become acquainted with anytime soon, but much preferred over a crazy person with a gun.

"It seems like one of the animal testing facility." Sesshoumaru answered as he eyed the room

"One of them?" Kagome's eyes scrunched together, "You mean we have more?"

"Yes, this particular room seems to focus on the rodent variety." He told her while he examined the mess on the floor. A dozen or so heavy, steel cages were carelessly left on the floor.

"Oh here, these cages fell over, and the stands that they were sitting on seem to be too flimsy for their weight. That must be what you heard."

Kagome was still unconvinced, but what other logical conclusion could be drawn and then she realized, "So if these many cages are empty and mind you, open on the floor…does that mean…there are dozens of mice on the loose?"

Sesshoumaru raised his eyebrows and scratched his head, "I guess so."

Kagome stilled and her jaw dropped as she frantically ran out of the room, "Ahh! Let's go! Let's go!"

Rolling his eyes, Sesshoumaru followed and they continued to search for a way out.

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"Hey Sesshoumaru?" Kagome asked while they took a break to eat, "In all seriousness, do you think someone is trying to attack this building?"

"I wouldn't be shocked," Sesshoumaru said while eating their pitiful excuse for a lunch, "We have many high priority projects going on in this facility, our enemies would love to get their hands on them or on the other hand the tiniest mistake by an employee can set off an alarm, although I have never witnessed one as severe as this one."

"I wonder what someone would be after?" Kagome rhetorically asked and then perked up, "…wait! I know!"

Sesshoumaru gave her a bland look then smirked, "Oh pray tell."

"You might be shocked…it's very confidential this is,…its…its…my ionizer." Kagome giggled. Trying to keep one's self amused under such circumstances was a difficult task to do, so she did the best she could.

Somewhat amused, he responded, "I'm surprised you can even assemble one."

"Well I do know and I also know that if I eat another pre-packaged, artificially created snack food I am going to throw up." Kagome moaned. Being under lockdown and wanting real food didn't go hand in hand.

"Chip?" Sesshoumaru offered, "We should go to the security mainframe, it's past the chemistry lab, not too far away. We might find out what the problem is."

"Sounds like a plan." Kagome smiled, finally he was thinking of ways to help.

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"Good thing I didn't go into chemistry." Kagome softly commented as she looked at all the chemicals and tools in the lab, she'd probably poison herself, unintentionally of course. Kagome was very content with her position in the Technology Department, nice and safe behind her desk, "I don't know how Sango does it."

"Sango, she is in this department no?" Sesshoumaru questioned as he looked for door which would lead them in the direction of the security mainframe.

"You know her?" Kagome asked while she spun around in one of those rolling chairs.

"I have heard of her work." He told her, "She is alleged to be a brilliant chemist who made a major contribution in finding the proper chemical combination that subdues a mass amount of people…but If she is an acquaintance of yours then…"

"Yes, she is brilliant and yes she is my friend." Kagome scolded, "This attitude of yours is becoming to be quite annoying."

He scoffed, "The pot calling the kettle black."

"Did you find anything yet?" she impatiently asked while she took out a scrap of paper and a pen that laid on a desk nearby and started to doodle.

"Yes, but the door is sealed."

"I could try to override the encryption if I had a laptop that I could connect the keypad module." Kagome said with hope in her eyes

"Here is a laptop." He handed it to her, "But they all require passwords, unless you can ask this person that this belongs to, we are back to square one."

"Whose is it?" Kagome asked

"S. Taka, that is all that I can find."

"Taka? That's Sango!" Kagome brightly said maybe their luck will start turning around

"You know her password?"

"No." Kagome frowned, "But I can call her. I forgot I have my phone, I can…"

"Wait. We have been in this building for almost two days and now you just mention you have a cell phone. A device in which we can contact outside help…" he very slowly asked to punctuate ever word

"…Yes" Kagome timidly answered, "You know what? beggars can't be choosers! Just be glad I have a phone."

"Instead of talking about using this acclaimed phone, why don't you use it call someone...now, preferably"

"I am getting there. No need to rush 'your only aid in escaping this damn place'" Kagome slyly replied, "Now all I have to do it call for help."

If only it could be that easy.

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Next: Chapter Three- by Unique Love