Note to readers:

Yes, I know it's been a while. Sorry! A lot of things happened in the last year! I'm dedicating the rest of my story to my daughter and my unborn child, without them I would have no purpose in life. I promise next update won't be as long. Talk about major writer's block! ENJOY!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mara woke up with a start and looked around. The dream had been so vivid, so real. Tom lay beside her, his arm haphazardly draped over her. Gently removing his arm, as not to wake him, Mara stood up and looked outside. The street was still quiet, there were no Seekers milling about, the clock said 5:00. Arthur stood up slowly; the sleep had done him very little good on his joints.

"Hey big guy, how are you doing?" Mara asked petting Arthur's massive head gently.

He gazed up at Mara as if to read her thoughts, he looked troubled.

"Don't worry big guy, it's all going to be ok." Mara told the dog and went in the other room.

She sat down, lit a cigarette, and tried to work through her racing thoughts. Halfway through the cigarette Tom walked into the room yawning and stretching.

"Why are you up? You should be sleeping; you're going to kill yourself if you keep this up." Tom said sitting next to Mara.

"We all die someday." Mara replied a bit on the sarcastic side.

"I suppose so. You just don't want to hurry anything up." Tom replied, rolling his eyes at Mara's sarcastic statement. He had grown accustomed to her sarcastic nature from all the years he had known her.

.

"When did you get that one?" He asked pointing to the tattoo on her arm.

"It was about a couple months ago. I thought I would splurge one time and get another one." Mara replied taking another puff of her cigarette. The tattoo was a tiger surrounded by traditional Japanese art. It was hand drawn and beautiful artwork; it went from the top of her shoulder to the middle of her bicep on both sides, "My mom actually yelled at me for this one. She always disapproved of my tattoos, it just this one she actually yelled at me for."

"Wow, I've never heard your mom yell. What'd she say?"

"Oh, just something about taking away from my beauty and defacing my body." Mara laughed, "I guess it really doesn't matter now."

"No, and knowing you it never really did. That's one thing I always liked about you, Mara." Tom replied, "You never gave a crap about what anyone thought and you always stood up for what was right and not popular."

"Tom?" Mara asked quietly after a slight break in the conversation.

"Yes, Mara?" He was suddenly aware of how tiny and fragile she looked.

"Promise me that you'll watch out for Lael if I'm ever gone." Mara asked.

"You're not going to go anywhere, Mara. You are going to be right here with me. When this is all said and done, I'm going to make sure BOTH of you are well taken care of." Tom replied his bright blue eyes flashing angrily.

"Promise me, please." Mara said standing up and wrapping her arms tightly around Tom's shoulders as if she were afraid to lose him to an unknown force.

"I will on the premises that you don't try to go too soon. Be careful, if not for your sake, for Lael's." Tom replied placing his hand on her arm.

"I will. I don't plan on going out without a fight." Mara said and flexed her muscular arm.

"Mara, were your dreams out of the ordinary last night?" Tom blurted out.

"My dreams are always weird, but considering the circumstances, I'd say there were definitely out of the ordinary." Mara replied sitting back next to Tom, "How about yours?'

Tom sighed. "Strange and very realistic, it wasn't like a dream at all."

Mara lit a cigarette," Tell me about them you look a little worried."

Tom thought for a second and slowly said, "Well Sara was there, and well, she's dead."

Mara took notice to the tears in Tom's eyes. She reached out, grabbed his hand, and gently squeezed it for reassurance.

Tom's look became distant as he recalled the dream. "It was a warning as well as a prophecy. The numbers of seekers are growing fast, and they only want one thing: to have dominion of this planet. You either become like one or you die, those are your choices." He hesitated for a second then slowly went on, "I guess it's up to us to stop them. The pulse was a governmental experiment gone haywire. Either a weapon or just trying to reach limits that were not meant to be reached. Either way, the experiment was compromised and was sent out worldwide. But we are the ones to free the human race."

"Uh, OK, why us?" Mara asked.

"I really don't know, it's so strange. I wonder if anyone else has had this dream or if it's just the select few." Tom gazed into Mara's troubled eyes.

"Could be, it was about the same dream except a few details were off." Mara replied hesitating for a second before saying, "I don't know what it is about me but I've always felt like there was more of a purpose for me than something mundane."

"It doesn't sound crazy at all, Mara; I've gotten the same feelings all my life also." Tom said his gaze dropping from hers. .

"So what do we do now?" Mara asked.

"I have no clue. First, we need to get everyone else to a safe location. Then we gather up a team and go." Tom replied standing up and walking to the couch.

"That's the ranger coming out in you." Mara said following him into the other room and lying on the couch suddenly very sleepy.

"Maybe so, but it's a good plan." Tom said studying face for any reaction, there was none.

"Sounds good to me…"Mara said and drifted off to sleep.

The two slept rather soundly until Lael woke them up jumping in their laps squealing her very loud pitched squeal.

"Morning, my little angel!" Mara exclaimed hugging her daughter.

"Mama, I wan some eat eat." Lael said not wasting any time.

"Ok, baby, you go play for a minute with Becca and I will get you some eat eat." Mara replied sitting up.

Lael scampered off but not before giving Tom a big hug and slobbery one-year old kiss.

"Guess I'd better get her something to eat before she tears apart the house." Mara said slowly getting up off the couch. Her joints were stiff and felt like they were on fire.

"Hold on, Mara." Tom said grabbing Mara's arm and drawing her close.

"What?" Mara asked looking up into his eyes.

"We're going to make it, don't worry. We're fighters!" He said giving her a hug and a peck on the cheek.

Naomi stood in the doorway and watched the slight exchange of affection between the Mara and Tom. Naomi was the jealous type and no matter how little the amount of affection was she would get very angry.

"Thanks Tom," Mara said and headed for the kitchen.

The trio spent the rest of the morning preparing for their impending adventure to their mom's house. Naomi was sullen and withdrawn through the whole time and barely said more than one word. They all decided that that they would take the van that was in the garage and head out as soon as possible. After going through the house they were comfortably armed, much to Mara's delight there was a crossbow, a hobby of hers that not many people knew about.

"Ready everyone?" Mara asked sitting in the driver's seat.

"Ready." The other two echoed back.

Mara threw the van in reverse and crashed through the flimsy garage door. That particular noise drew all the Seeker's attention for what seemed like miles. Mara managed to swerve around the hoard of seekers drunkenly heading towards the van. She managed to hit a few; they made an odd crunching noise as the van ran over them.

"This is bad." Mara said.

"And why didn't we wait until dark?" Naomi asked in a condescending tone.

"Because, I had a gut feeling and I don't ignore gut feelings." Mara replied not taking her eyes off the road.

"Great just because you had a feeling, you risk all the lives of everyone in this car and even mom's life. That's just fucked up Mara." Naomi said and crossed her arms.

Mara's right eye began to twitch, and she gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white.

"Naomi, not now." Tom snapped knowing fully what it meant when Mara's eye began to twitch.

"You would stick up for her." Naomi muttered.

Tom let the comment go and turned his attention to the road, which was literally littered with cars. Mara was doing a nice job of avoiding the abandoned cars. Seekers roamed all about acting stupidly and drunkenly.

"What are they doing?" Tom asked mainly to himself.

"I honestly don't know. It's like they've reverted to prehistoric humans." Naomi replied.

"Crazy." Tom muttered shaking his head.

They were nearing their mom's neighborhood when a mass of seekers started out after them.

"Take the wheel Tom." Mara commanded and Tom took the wheel without asking any questions.

Mara drew her gun, hung herself halfway out the window, and began shooting the seekers that were heading their way.

"Mara, what are you doing?" Naomi cried out.

Mara shot about 10 seekers before resuming her position at the wheel.

"If I didn't just do that, we'd be overrun by seekers and perhaps not make it out." Mara explained with a slightly disturbing grin.

"Is this a game to you?" Naomi exclaimed clearly upset, "Those are living breathing people! You're a murderer!"

"No, they are not living people, at least to our standards." Mara swerved the car to the left barely missing a stalled car.

"You don't have to be so happy about shooting them though!"

"Might as well have fun while I can," Mara replied, flashing her disturbing smile again.

Off to the right there were seekers in Police uniforms fighting over a Krispy Kreme box.

"Now if that isn't a stereo type." Tom said laughing.

Mara joined him in the laughter. Naomi did not say anything and just stared out the window.

There were no seekers in front of their mom's house luckily. Mara stopped the car in front of the garage and jammed it in park.

"Tom, I'm going to need you to watch my back. I am going inside to open the garage door. Get in the driver's seat and when I open the door go in as fast as you can. I'm guessing if they see a normie than they're going to go after them. Wish me luck." Mara said and stepped out of the car before any of them could argue.

None of the seekers noticed Mara as she stealthy ran to the door and unlocked it.

"Mom, are you in here?" She called out.

"I'm here!" A voice from the bedroom called back.

"Tom, Naomi, and the girls are outside. I have to let up the garage door so that they can get in safe. I'll be in there in just a second." Mara yelled back as she stepped into the garage.

Mara let the garage door up. That drew the seeker's attention, and at the sight of fresh live meat they started advancing rapidly.

"GO TOM!" Mara screamed.

Tom screeched the tires and flew into the garage. Mara was shutting the door when the first seeker reached her. She recognized it as her mother's rude next-door neighbor. He was constantly hooking his weed eater's cord up to their plug and stealing various items from their yard.

"Rast! Enog Meta!" The seeker screamed and knocked Mara on the ground gouging her neck with his fingernails. Mara saw stars for a moment and when her vision cleared, she saw the seeker in her face with its teeth bared. Tom in an instant drew his gun and emptied the clip into the seeker. The last shot went though its forehead. He threw the dead seeker out and slammed the garage door shut.

"Naomi! Get the girls inside now!" Tom yelled behind his shoulder, he could hear the babies start to cry.

"What about Mara is she OK?" Naomi screamed near hysterics.

"She'll be fine! Just get the girls inside." Tom replied over his shoulder. Naomi rushed the girls in; Tom could hear their mom saying something but couldn't make it out. Mara's breathing was shallow; he could barely see her chest rise. Blood poured from the wounds on her neck and her pulse was weak and sporadic.

Tom grabbed some shop towels and pressed them to Mara's gaping neck wounds. Mara was starting to lose consciousness.

"Mara listen to me." Tom said, "You're hurt pretty bad and the bleeding will not stop. Stay with me baby girl."

Mara weakly grabbed Tom's hand and mumbled something incoherently. She then fell into unconsciousness.

"Shit!" Tom exclaimed, "Come on Mara stay with me."

Her grip relaxed on his hand as her heart stopped pumping. Throwing the bloody towels to the side, Tom began trying to start her heart back up again.

At the sound of Tom's distressed voice, Mara's mom came running into the garage. Upon seeing the large amount of blood on the floor and Tom performing CPR, she let out a scream.

"Ruth, did Gary have any kind of medical kit around here? Maybe Mara stocked up some stuff for emergencies?" Tom asked out of breath.

"I actually think there's one in the linen closet." Ruth replied her eyes wide with horror. "Mara stocked it with nurse's supplies."

"I need you to go get it now." Tom commanded, "I only have a few minutes and she's gone forever."

Ruth ran in and brought a bag back. Tom searched frantically for minute then found what he was looking.

"Good girl," He murmured plunging a syringe into her near transparent veins, "Always prepared for anything."

"Come on Mara!" Tom screamed as he pounded on her chest in a feeble last attempt to bring Mara back to life.

"Tom," he mom said softly, "that's enough, she's not coming back."

Tom wiped his hand across his forehead and replied, "There's got to be something else."

Placing a hand on his shoulder Ruth said, "I'm afraid not Tom."

Tom threw himself across Mara's chest sobbing. Ruth let Tom be alone for a while; she had to tell Naomi the news. Ruth felt a sorrow like no other person has ever felt before. Tears also streamed down her face.

Why did this happen to my daughter? Ruth thought sadly, what will happen to her little Lael?

"I want you back so bad." Tom sobbed, "I need you!"

"Tom..." Mara barely whispered, "I'm here!"

Tom gasped.