The End Of Life

The woman had two expressions on her face, anger towards her daughter, and wariness towards Mark. She was angry at her daughter's recklessness, and she was cautious after hearing Mark's last sentence. He decided to act on Mark's last sentence first. 

So she asked, "What do you mean by 'It isn't for free.'?" Looking at Mark. 

"It means exactly as it sounds. I didn't save these two suicidal teenagers who escaped a safe place for fun for free. I need something in return. And you can ask your daughter about it." Looking at Gwen at the end. 

Gwen noticed his gaze and immediately turned towards her mother and said, "Mom, they saved us. They aren't asking for much. Only some dinner and a place to stay for the night. They will leave tomorrow morning." Trying to be as convincing as she could. 

The woman frowned as she heard her daughter and said impatiently, "How can you promise that to some unknown person. Even if he saved you, you can't make a promise like that. You should know about our problems right now. We already have a shortage of food." Almost shouting at her.

"But mom, they saved me and Dereck from a zombie horde. We can at least give some food for one night. It won't be that much of a difference. Please understand." Begging her.

"No, we can't sacrifice our limited capacity-" 

"Oh, stop it. Don't start a drama right now. When we saved these two idiots, they promised me that our dinner tonight would be on you people. This isn't negotiable. So you better arrange a place for us and food tonight." Interrupting her in the middle. Mark grew more impatient as he heard her arguing with her daughter. 

Hearing Mark's remark, the mayor glared at him and said, "Please don't talk like this. Everyone right now is in a tough situation and we are also in one. Our storage is very low and we are barely able to keep up. Do you think we can give you some just because of my daughter's promise?" 

Hearing her, Mark laughed out loud, clutching his stomach. The sudden reaction surprised everyone, including David. It irritated the mayor, and she asked, "What do you find so funny?"

Mark suddenly stopped laughing and took out his gun. He kept it on Gwen's head and looked at her mother. He slowly said, "Well, I don't really care who kept the promise. But they made it. I kept my end of the deal. That is bringing these two idiots back to their camp, here. For only dinner and a place to stay for the night. Now that you are saying you can't keep one of the conditions at your end, it looks like you only need one of the two people. I look at this as a fair trade." 

His words shocked everyone there. Before the Mayor could respond to his words. The man who came with her responded first, "Sir, we understand. It's a meal for 3 people. We will arrange it. Leave the girl." 

Mark heard him and before he could respond the mayor shouted, "What do you think you are doing?" 

The man slowly said ignoring her outburst, "Mayor you need to understand. These people made a deal with the kids. And they did their end of the deal. Just because we weren't there doesn't mean we can break it. And look at him, he would kill your daughter. We should just give them a meal." 

Hearing him, the Mayor calmed down and nodded. Mark also nodded seeing this and retracted the gun. The man exhaled in relief and said, "We will show you the way to your temporary place to stay. If you follow." 

Mark looked at David and said, "David please park the vehicle." And went towards Suzie and said, "Suzie, get down. We will stay here for the night." 

Suzie nodded and slowly got down and went to Mark. David drove the jeep and parked it right next to the entrance. He took out their bags and came beside Mark. Mark looked at the man and nodded. The man looked at the Mayor and said, "I will take them." The mayor nodded and went inside with Gwen behind her. 

The man turned around and went inside, followed by Mark, David, and Suzie. They entered the hospital and were greeted by a vast lobby. It was bigger than Denton's company lobby. The hospital was only 4 floors but was wide and big. They followed him into one of the hallways opposite to the one the mayor took. 

As they walked through the hallway David asked the man, "How are the things here in the town?" 

The man turned around and noticed it was David who asked and replied, "They are pretty worse. The zombies are everywhere. If it wasn't for the Mayor's quick action together with the police helping us. Many people would have died. We were able to make this hospital our base."

"How many people are here?"

"When the things turned upside down, and we told all the people of the town through radio emergency about the camp. Only a little over 300 people were able to make it here." 

"What isn't that number too low? Are there any other camps in this town?"

The man smiled bitterly and shook his head, "We scouted most of the town and weren't able to find any other settlements like this. This is why you see the Mayor very stressed earlier. Please don't mind her, she has not gotten a proper sleep since all of this started." 

David nodded and asked slowly, "What problems was the Mayor talking about?"

"Our food supplies are very low at the moment. If we stretch it, we will probably have enough food to feed the 300 people here only for a few more days. This is a huge crisis for us right now." 

David kept silent, hearing him. He had a crazy thought after hearing him and decided to discuss it with Mark when they reached their room. The man led them to the 2nd floor and into the corridor. 

They noticed the people as they walked through the corridors, and most of them lost their hope of life. The man stopped in front of a room and said, "This room has 3 beds. So it should be enough."