Nightfall took its time making its appearance, when it did the trio was ready to step into the dear of the unknown. Fear was with them but not controlling them.
Tom rattled off the list to Mara as she packed them in a double stroller.
"Mara, did you get the water, food, ammunition, diapers/wipes, flashlights, and batteries?" Tom asked.
"Yep, all packed and ready to go, gotta love those two for one sales. Now were did I pack the scum sucking scavenger? Oh wait never mind there you are!" Mara replied pointing to Tom and laughing. It felt good to laugh. All the stress that was built up that day was bound to give everyone a 'myocardial infarction' as she would say. Deep down inside Mara knew that laughing would become a rarity.
"I'm here, and what about the overbearing obnoxious medically trained female? Oops I guess you are here too!" Tom retorted his smile lighting up his bright blue eyes.
"You know it baby! I'm locked, loaded, and ready." Mara said and patted the gun on her hip.
"Ok, enough joking around you guys, if we are going to do this we have to do it now." Naomi said a little annoyed.
This is how it had always been between Tom and Mara even before the cell phone epidemic. They could've passed for brother and sister if someone didn't know any better.
Mara, Naomi, Becca, Lael, Tom, and of course Arthur started out on their adventure. Luckily Lael and Becca were fast asleep in the stroller; their day had come to an end as usual.
Two Hours Later
"Where'd they all go?" Naomi asked. "The streets were filled with hungry zombies flesh seeking zombies and now they are empty."
Naomi and Mara both looked at each other and exclaimed "Seekers!"
"I don't know, Naomi," Mara replied, "When it turned dark it seemed like every one of those 'things' started southwest. But seekers shall be their new names. Zombies are too cliché"
They came up to an intersection blocked off by a city bus turned over.
"Naomi, this reminds me of the time when you were pregnant with Becca. You remember, right? When you ran into the Tal Tran bus?" Mara said.
"I am never going to live that down?" Naomi mumbled looking down at Becca with adoration.
Arthur stopped to mark his 'territory', probably to cover up the dog (and the many others) that had marked it before him. Who knew? Dogs can be so weird. Arthur was a good dog. He always had to make sure the kids were safe first, then the adults. There is no other living entity as loyal as a good dog. Arthur knew his role in the five 'hunters'. He had his place, he was happy.
Tom stopped suddenly, staring at something to his left. There lay a man barely recognizable he had been torn up so bad. Half of his head was missing as well as a leg and an arm.
"One more arm and one more leg he could be Matt." Tom said under his breath not fully expecting Mara's exceptionally good hearing to pick that one up.
"That's just wrong, Tom." Mara said shaking her head, "But way to use humor to deflect your real feelings."
There was literally hundreds of 'Matts' lying around all over the streets. Not one of them went without some sort of mutilation done to them. It was a horrific and bloody sight to be taken in all at once and Naomi lost her dinner. Both Tom and Mara were pale and nauseated but managed to keep theirs down…Barely. The hospital (what was left of it) came into view at the next intersection.
The inside was just as bad as the outside. Bodies were everywhere just as they were outside. The generators had failed and the hunters used their flashlights to reveal a very gruesome sight.
"Naomi, stay there for a second with the girls." Naomi said pointing to the Triage area, "I want to check this out with Tom."
Naomi tossed Mara a nod, and Arthur planted himself beside Naomi and the stroller.
"Ok, but I am screaming and hauling my ass to where you are if I see anything." Naomi replied warily.
"Sounds good to me," Mara replied following Tom into the back of the ER.
Arthur stood guard next to Naomi and the girls; his big presence was enough to keep any person dead or alive away.
Inside the ER was no better than the front, blood and gore were everywhere. What was once white walls were now stained and smeared red with blood. There was no end to this in sight. It was like a sprinkler of blood was set off from every corpse on the floor. Tom left Mara's side for a moment to call for his wife.
"Sara!" Tom whispered heading over to the head nurse's station, "Are you in here?"
Nobody was in sight. There were a few dead bodies on the floor, mauled like everyone else they saw.
"She's not here." He stated reluctantly. Tears flowed freely from Tom's cheeks as he raised his shaking hands to his face.
"She probably went running like the rest of them. Maybe took an ambulance and got the hell out of there." Mara replied, "We don't see her here that's good!"
"Maybe, it sure is a bloodbath in here." He said shining his flashlight around the room.
Mara replied, "We need to remain upbeat and pos-"
There in seeker form was Mrs. Smith, the last patient Mara saw. Her eyes blank and glazed were fixed on Mara as if she remembered her. Mrs. Smith seemed to be drawn to Mara magnetically as if she had been seeking Mara out.
"Tom get behind me now." She commanded drawing her gun and flicking the safety off.
"What?" Tom turned and saw the once Mrs. Smith. His movement caught the seeker's attention.
At that moment Mrs. Smith lunged at Tom; he ducked barely missing her deadly teeth, slipped, and fell due to the blood on the floor. Mara took her only shot and fired the gun; if she failed Tom would be gone forever. The shot was a dead between the eyes; Mrs. Smith dropped like a sack of rotten potatoes thrown in the garbage.
"Where the hell did you learn to shoot like that?!" Tom exclaimed, his eyes as wide as saucers.
"High school," Mara replied holstering the gun, "like everyone else."
"She was a moving target! Right between the eyes! I never thought that you were so good at shooting."
"Why do you think I insisted on being the one that carried the gun?"
"I thought you were just being a bitch as always."
"Very funny Tom, no, I'm a deadly shot and I didn't know how good of a shot you are." Mara replied giving Tom once again the one finger salute.
"I'm going to look around a bit for Sara; you can join me if you like." Tom said.
"Alright, but we have to make this quick, we don't want to run into anymore seekers," Mara replied, "I didn't like shooting Mrs. Smith-it's the opposite of what I did for her earlier today. But if it's human versus seeker, the seeker will be dropped faster than you can blink."
"You knew her?"
"Yea, she was the last patient I saw. She was such a bitch, I'm almost happy to be the one that shot her." A grin swept across Mara's face and left just as quickly as it came.
"Oh and I'm the sick person here." Tom muttered.
Mara shrugged, "Ya gotta do what ya gotta do."
They searched most of the hospital to no avail. The plain and simple fact was: Sara was not there in human or seeker form. They returned to a very worried Naomi and a very worrisome but alert Arthur.
"Where were you guys? I heard a shot but I didn't want to bring the girls in there. What happened?" Naomi hammered out.
"Ran into an old patient of mine; she was a seeker so I had to shoot her." Mara replied checking on the girls.
"Those girls will sleep through anything, eh?" Tom commented.
Mara kissed Lael's cheek, "Yep, Lael must've gotten it from her aunt. I'm a light sleeper."
"So what now guys, what do we do?" Naomi asked.
"Since we know that mom is ok, we need to get her first then figure out what to do next. You know dad was prepared for the worst. A generator, MRE's, bottled water, radios, more guns and ammo, etc." Mara replied. "I even think he has an AK-47. What do you think, Tom?"
"It sounds like the most tactical point of view. If we can't make it by daylight I think we should find an abandoned home to sleep in. I know we're all exhausted, but we need to get as far as we can before daylight, it seems they only come out in the daytime. The roads look ok if we go slowly; but we'll need something like a hummer." Tom replied still wondering about Sara.
Mara started "Ya mean a Sherman Tank? Cause-"
"Shut up Mara." Naomi snapped, "We know the rest."
"Ok, ok I'll stop. But we also need to find baby seats, safety first no exception. I'm not sure I want to find one in a car, you never know what happened in it." Mara said.
"What are you talking about?" Tom asked.
"I don't want to see a dead child mutilated by the seekers the way these people were. I may be a hard ass when it comes to everything else but I can't stand to see children hurt." Mara snapped.
"Ok, well there is a Toys R Us nearby. We could find a suitable car most likely in the parking garage, get the car seats, and head out." Naomi said very matter of fact.
"Sounds good to me, what about you Mara?" Tom asked but silently thinking, there's a daycare on the way; that would be a fail safe for supplies. But that is a last resort Mara is really touchy about kids and I don't want to put her through that if something did go horribly wrong
"Fine with me, anything to keep from walking so much, my feet are killing me." Mara grabbed a cigarette and lit it.
Tom looked at Mara and said with a smile, "This is a non smoking campus."
"Go ahead call security just make sure and use a cell phone." Mara replied blowing smoke in his direction.
Tom's grin grew bigger and he relied, "That's not going to happen."
"Let's go children!" Naomi exclaimed pushing the stroller outside Arthur following with one eye on the stroller and the other on his three 'masters'.
Tom gave Mara a shove towards the door and received an elbow in the ribs and they walked outside together arm in arm.
The night air never smelled so sweet to all of them.