Sarah and Aidan

[Mr. Handy]

"I've seen at least three or four," says Sarah, "but there's probably more than that. There was Carson on the first floor, and that nurse Daniella on the stairwell on the second floor. Earlier there was another nurse on the ground floor, and poor Karlene, one of the paramedics from the ambulance...she didn't seem exactly like the others, though. I think something else happened to her." Sarah can't help trembling. "Come on, chaps, let's get back downstairs."

[TheKingInYellow]

"I saw... One... And the one down by the children's ward... But they may've been the same."

Aidan steps into the stairwell, finally raising his gaze now that the destruction is out of view. He gives a pained sigh.

[Laraqua]

The police officer doesn't respond, he merely starts climbing down the stairs, gun and flashlight pressed together. He 'slices the pie' when he reaches each landing, slowly turning around the wall to quickly regard the lobbies beyond. Now that there is light entering the hospital, the place looks less frightening and more derelict. Sarah and Aidan realise that the temperature has gone up too, to a more usual London cool day. Finally, they reach the silent and still Second Floor. There is no sight of anyone in here.

[Mr. Handy]

"Wha-" starts Sarah, confused. "Where could they all have gone? There was a whole bunch of people here." She looks around for any sign of their passage, and for the cart of supplies she had left behind. "Maybe they all went up the ramp, but most of the children were still asleep and they couldn't have wheeled them all at once, unless they woke up for some reason. Or...well, I've seen people vanish earlier. Or rather I didn't see them. There were four people with me in the ambulance one second, and the next they were just...gone! I was all alone down there until Leroy and Joel found me."

[Laraqua]

"Riiight," says the constable. "We should get you two up in the helicopter."

The wheeled trolley of medical supplies is still there.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah retreives the cart. "Are you sure?" she asks. "What about all those children? Shouldn't we look for them? And who's going to perform an appendectomy if I'm not here? Dianne already told me she can't do it...wherever she's gone off to."

[TheKingInYellow]

"No, we can't leave the children." Aidan insist; his tone is calm and collected, but he's sweating heavily for the temperature. "Please, officer, I understand the direness of the situation. Yet, I would sooner stay here myself than leave the children behind."

He sighs and picks up his briefcase if nobody took it along.

"Just... Give us five minutes to look for them, please... They're just kids, we're their only chance to get out of here."

[Laraqua]

It takes a moment for them to realise that the blood and gore has been reduced greatly. No longer are there any pieces lying around, merely great swathes of dried blood. The outer wall has still been ripped open but it looks different somehow, almost as though it had crumbled naturally.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah gapes. "We were only gone a few minutes," she says, "but it looks like everything has aged decades! I've seen this sort of thing happen a lot tonight. It's as if time isn't flowing the same everywhere." She sighs. "Nobody wants to get out of this hospital more than I do after all the horrible things that have happened, but we've got to at least try to find the children. They couldn't have gone far. I told them to start heading upstairs, and that those who weren't going on the chopper should stay on the fifth floor anyway. I can't imagine they'd go downstairs; it's far too dangerous. If they're not on this floor, we should head up to look for them. We'll use the ramp; that way we can bring the wheeled cart, and if they had taken the stairs we'd have passed them. We can check each floor as we go."

[TheKingInYellow]

Aidan grimaces as he puts together the situation.

"Okay... Let's go through the upstairs floors. We can look for the rest and if they're not there, then we can go."

He looks to the officer and gives him a pleading expression. "Please?"

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah nods. "We've got to take the ramp upstairs anyway, so we might as well look for them on the way. Hopefully they went upstairs to reach the chopper. Let's get up to the third floor now. Aidan, can you push the cart, please? I've got my hands rather full at the moment."

[TheKingInYellow]

Aidan nods in agreement, putting his briefcase on to carry and awkwardly trying to take control of the cart with one hand while holding the spike with the other

[Laraqua]

The officer looks around grimly. "Yeah, I guess... Yeah... Let's go."

[Mr. Handy]

"Okay, let's go," says Sarah. She holds her weapons ready and heads for the ramp leading up with the others.

[Laraqua]

The constable follows, the gun and torch held in both hands as he checks the floors. The hospital is so quiet. All they can hear is the sound of the helicopter's engines from the rooftop. Everything else ... all of London ... so quiet. The light that filters through the grimy hospital windows is dimming as the sun falls beneath the horizon.

[Mr. Handy]

Sarah carefully makes her way up the ramp following the officer, looking around for any sign of the children or any dangers. She looks back frequently to make sure Aidan is doing okay with the cart. She is surprised to see the sun just beginning to set. I had thought it was later than that, she thinks. Maybe it just felt like it took a longer time, and the ash made it seem like night outside.

[TheKingInYellow]

Aidan tries not to think about it. He isn't even sure what time it is, or even if it's still the same day. The possibility that this could be all of London is too much to contemplate. Too much loss to think about. Instead, he just does his best to focus on pushing the cart, ocassionaly muttering or cursing to himself as refuses to be controlled with just his one free hand.

[Laraqua]

The third floor appears grimy and unnatural. The grime and decay are even more apparent in the waning light. A woman who looks like Jill enters the room directly across from the ramp's landing (check the map).

[Mr. Handy]

[OOC: The map isn't exactly clear, but it looks to me like the woman is heading into the large unlabeled room south of the ramp.]



"That looked like Jill," whispers Sarah, "but why would she have left the children, and why would she be going in there?" She looks to the police officer. "We should get a closer look, but we'd better be careful. She could have turned into one of...them."

[TheKingInYellow]

Aidan is unsettled by the sight. Jill is really the only person he knows in this place, even though he barely knows her at all.

"Perhaps... They've got the children up here?" His voice betrays the doubt in his own words.

He parks the cart to the side and looks to the police officer for some signal that he'll go with them.