Eclipse

Chapter 13

Time: Early Evening. 

Place: The Hospital

I found a wheel chair in good condition down the hall and wheeled it back to the operating room. After having tried to snap Tamara out of her shock, I decided the next best thing to do was move to a new location and maybe try to get some food and drink. 

I recalled that the cafeteria was fairly close by and decided that was as good of place as any to start. There were no elevators along the way and Tamara wouldn't move on her own causing me to have to walk up and down the stairs multiple times to help her down then bring the wheel chair down. 

The air in the area felt dead and the halls were stagnant now. There were no monsters, no screaming, just the background sounds of random machines, fans ands the sort. It was as if the game master knew we completed the area and there was no need to challenge us anymore. 

We now had all the pieces of the doll with us but I had yet to put them together. There was a fear dwelling in the back of my mind that if I completed the puzzle the real world would come back into existence and my experience earlier would come back to haunt me. I never let go if what I did in that other reality was done to real people or not. 

Monster kept repeating in my mind. Was I a monster?

Ever since this started, I was able to fight and defend myself with ease so far. I had some martial arts training from aikido, but we rarely ever used katana's to attack one another.  The only time we used weapons was to train on different ways to defend ourselves. 

What I was doing was completely different. I had reflexes I never knew I had, and skills that frightened those around me. 

I looked down at Tamara. She felt for me, yet feared me at the same time.

I stroked her hair trying to give her some comfort, though the truth was, I needed comfort myself. The only thing keeping me going was shear determination not to let her die. 

We finally reached the cafeteria. Looking around, I saw that nothing had changed. Rotten food littered the tables and floor. I found the kitchen area and wheeled Tamara over to it, parking her where I could see her as I went into the back area. 

There were a few refrigerators in the back, none of which had power. I took a chance and opened one and a blast of cool air rushed out. 

They still held in the cold air from when power went out a few hours ago..  Finally something to cheer about. The sad part was, all of these freezers had were food, no water or liquids. I was parched beyond belief. 

I went back to Tamara and pulled her wheelchair around to the freezer letting some of the cold air blow on her. 

"Look, we have food!" I exclaimed trying to cheer her up.

I found a tray near by and put it in her lap. 

"Here, you hold this while I put something together."

I looked around, "veggies are going to have the most water content in them, and I think that's important right now. We also need some protein and carbs"

I remembered what my gym teachers in middle school taught us about healthy eating especially when working out. I didn't fully understand but enough to know that we needed meat and noodles. I remembered another story about cyclists eating noodles for endurance.

I found lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes, I also found what looked like leftover meaty spaghetti. Perfect. We'll have to eat it cold as the microwaves were all down. I located a clean knife in a block and used it to cut everything up, placing each thing on a plate before placing on the try that Tamara "held".