by Luna Wolf
I take Forrest back from Octavius. His shoulders relax. “I was terrified I was going to drop him. I remember as a toddler, I watched a doctor drop a baby that was mixed with jelly fish. She was never right after that.”
I smile. “I doubt you’d do something like that, even if he did sting you.”
He grins and brushes his hair out of his four-eyes. “I’m glad you have confidence in me, Squeaks. Not a lot of people do. I hope you choose me to be a part of your group.”
“If one of the other girls doesn’t snatch you up first, I want you in my group.”
His grin widens. “You want me, aye?”
My cheeks burn, but I manage to stay solid looking. He tilts his head to the left. “You didn’t go invisible.”
And he just had to point it out. My cheeks burn hotter as my body becomes see through.
He carefully takes Forrest from me. “Not that I think you’ll drop him. It’s just really weird to see a floating baby in this hallway, makes me nervous for him.”
I laugh.
Forrest wails as do the other three babies. They need something, but none of us can figure out what it is. We tried rocking, and feeding, but none of it has worked to satisfy them.
The girl with the ebony hair, who introduced herself as Tibby screams. “Oh! Can’t you make them shut up already?”
I tap my implant and search for I.C.A.W a woman appears in front of us. “I need help. They won’t stop crying. We’ve fed and rocked them.” Did I just say all that without stuttering?
“Have you checked the child’s diaper to see if he defecated?” She stares at me with an unnerving stoic expression.
“How do I do that and fix it?” Forrest squirms in my arms, when did he begin moving so much?
She lifts her hand a table comes out of the wall where it appears to fit inside of it. “You will find new diapers underneath the table on the shelf. Follow the guide on the wall above the table. That’ll show you what to do. There is adequate space for all four children to be changed.”
Rosie, Pansy, and I all take our screaming babies over to the table. Tibby stays in her chair, her baby lying on the couch near her. She screams at the top of her lungs, but Tibby never moves a finger to help her.
A red-haired guy comes out of his dorm with a huff, before he picks the child up, he comes over to where we are, following the guide on how to remove and dispose the diaper in the organic waste shoot, where it’ll break down into fertilizer for the city’s gardens. Then how to clean them. “Pansy, you have a girl, you have to wipe away from her vagina not towards it. The video said that would give a real baby an infection.” Rosie swats at her sister’s arm.
I peer over at the guy as he changes Tibby’s child without a word. All the babies have quieted down now that they’re not sitting in filth. At least we know how that all works now.
Tibby’s baby gurgles up at the guy. “That was nice of you to help Tibby with her baby,” Rosie purrs from across the table.
The guy looks up and smiles. “I just felt bad for her. She got stuck with someone who shouldn’t be in this project.”
I nod my head. He couldn’t be more right. If he hadn’t picked her up and done it himself, I would’ve gone over there and got her.
“I’m Rosie, by the way. This is my sister Pansy. We’re a packaged deal, just so you know.”
He nods. “Twins usually like to share everything in my experience. I’m Finn.”
We all sat around the hologram ball, with the babies sleep for the night, according to I.C.A.W. Now it’s time for us to watch ancient films centered around parenting.
The first one comes on. Octavius groans. “This is one of the ones from the late twentieth century the film quality is so bad.”
I wince at the grainy texture of the film. No matter how much they remaster them for today’s technology, some things can’t be fixed.
Arrow coughs. “I’m sure it’ll have some valuable information we can learn. They wouldn’t have dug it out of the archives for nothing.”
Octavius pulls me closer to him. “Says the kiss ass whose daddy is the head of this whole thing. Must be nice knowing where you come from.”
“At least I’m not a loser who causes problems every chance he gets.”
Arrow sits on my other side and tugs me in his direction. Though I have gratitude for him saving me, twice, I'm not that comfortable with him. He's so prickly around the edges with how he carries himself.
"At least I stand up to the fuckers instead of following every word they say." Octavius pulls me back toward him.
Two hands go underneath my armpits and lift me in the air like I'm nothing. What the in the world?
A guy takes my seats before setting me on his lap. I peer over my shoulder. The guy with the impossibly yellow eyes. He lifted me up as if I was just a feather in his way. I blink at him. "H-hello."
He grins, showing a row of almost perfect white teeth, his canines stand out as razor-sharp and pointy though. "Hello, I'm King. I thought I'd save you from possibly losing an arm at how much they were treating you like a piece of rope in a tug of war."
A small smile graces my lips. "Th-thank you."
Octavius and Arrow calm down with the massive guy sitting between them.
The movie opens with the starting scene. Did people wear things like that back in the day? Their hair is horrible. How is the movie about parenting? I don't see children anywhere.
A good portion of time passes before the baby comes into play. The woman doesn't know which one of three men are the father. I jump as a wail comes from Tibby's room. I glance over at her. She doesn't even fidget as her eyes stay on the screen.
I can't just let the poor child cry all night. Didn't I.C.A.W say they would stay asleep the rest of the night? I scoot of King's lap and go to her room. Opening the door, the lights switch on.
"Whoa." The baby stands up in her crib. A full head of ebony hair curls on top her head. She cries and stomps her feet, now much bigger than she was when one of the other guys put her down for the night. I go to her and pick her up. "When did you get so big, huh?"
Her screams get louder as she fights me while I try to cradle her. Maybe she's too big for that now? She was holding her head up a second ago just fine. I move to support her against my chest like when we had to burp them earlier.
She quiets down and rests her head against my shoulder. Her thumb goes into her mouth. "Is that all you wanted?" I rub her back. Her breathing evens out, as I move to place her back in the crib. Her eyes shoot open and she cries again.
Once again, I pick her up and place her against my shoulder. She stills. Okay, I guess I'm holding her for a little while.
"I guess you can hang out while we watch the movie, right?" I whisper as I exit Tibby's room.
Tibby glances over at us. "Why do you have her?"
"Because I wasn't going to let her cry while you're determined to hate this entire situation. She doesn't want to be alone." My eyes widen at the animosity in my voice. I've never said anything like that ever, and without stuttering to top it off.
The child lifts her head from my shoulder and looks around before leaning away from me and reaching for Finn. With a sigh, he stands from his chair and takes her from me. She snuggles into his chest. “Thank you for checking on her.”
“We-we’re all in th-this to-together.”
We sit in a circle on the floor, surrounding a hologram teacher. “I’m sad to say we’ve only been able to explore about five percent of the planet so far. So, what we can teach you about it is limited, but we do know of some of the dangers, along with foods that are safe to eat.”
A guy huffs off to the side. “That’s all so reassuring. So basically, we have no idea what will be walking into?” His long, braided grey hair flows down his back.
“Yes, that would be an accurate statement. I’ll be teaching you about the threats first. Please place on your V.R.Is and we'll begin with your training."
I place the small disc on the
center of my temple before it carries me into darkness and into a place full of vegetation.
We all stand as a group, viewing and being part of the same experience.
A waterfall runs into a basin where something massive drinks. What the fuck is that thing?
The teacher appears in front of us. "Even though you can't die in virtual reality, that doesn't mean you can't fight your hardest to defeat the thing behind us. They are vicious creatures who will attack first. We haven't been able to capture one to study it, we've lost many A.I.s while trying. We've given it the name of Tentucallousis
The thing lifts its head and stares at us be gigantic black eyes. Tentacles make up the area of its mouth. It lets out an ear deafening scream as it charges at us.
We split, all running in different directions. Knifes and weapons appear on the ground. Several of the guys grab them, braver than me to face the thing of nightmares.
King throws daggers into it Echo picks up a bow and a quiver of arrows, before he rapid fires them at its eyes. For a blind guy, he can fight better than most who can see without echolocation.
It falters as its eyesight gets taken. Green goo leaks out of the wounds. It screams, thrashing around, the goo sprays forth hitting Arrow in the arm. He hisses as it burns away at his virtual flesh.
"Its blood is acid, be careful!" He calls.
Rosie, Pansy and I huddle together. Apparently, they're not great fighters either. Not when there's a lot more skilled people around us.
Octavius shoots something from his hair at the creature’s tentacles binding them together with what looks to be spider webbing. It stills as its tentacles become immobilized. It tips over, falling face first into the ground. We all stop. Is it dead?
The teacher reappears. "It's not dead, but you have immobilized it. If this was happening out of virtual reality I would tell you to run at this point. We haven't been able to find anything that'll kill them. Excellent job, you four. You saved everyone else from theoretically being killed."
The creature disappears floating away as tiny pixels. "Now follow me over to this waterfall. "Any time you see running water like this, it’s safe to drink. Don't touch it if it's still and smells stagnant and bad. Luckily, within the area we've explored and will be sending you too, there are many pockets of fresh running water. I advise you to make your base camps near places like this. Preferably off the ground. I'll be teaching you in the coming days how to build shelters within the trees, away from ground dwelling creatures like that."
How do they expect us to keep children alive while in an environment like this?
The days pass in a blur of virtual reality classes and taking care of the babies, who grow by the hour, I swear. Along with parenting movies in the evening. It seems like our ancestors also had no idea what they were getting into with having kids. Most of them make a ton of mistakes before righting them. Puking or missing a period is a sign of pregnancy, though Doctor Langsting has stated our implants will let us know if we are.
I enter my room after class, Forrest stands in his crib and reaches for me. "Ma, Ma." They began talking four nights ago. He can't say my name though, so it comes out Ma.
"Hello, Forrest. Did you miss me? I missed you."
He nods. I run a hand over his iridescent blue hair as I pick him up.
"Lark, get back here, I have to put your diaper on!" Rosie calls.
I roll my eyes. As soon as the child learned to walk, his diaper comes off every chance he gets.
"No!" The child laughs as he tramples through the sitting area.
I peer at Forrest before leaving my room. "At least you aren't as stubborn as Lark."
Tibby's baby screams.
"I'm coming, Ivy, stop having a conniption," Vexus calls. He's yet another one that's volunteer to take care of the girl since Tibby has yet to help with anything. In class or with the babies. How did she make it past the trials? His pure white form from head to toe, except for the black band around his neck, goes into her room.
Lark runs past me giggling with his diaper on his head. Rosie chases after him. "Get that off your head this instant young man! That goes on your butt!"
Forrest wiggles in my arms as he sees Echo and Octavius playing a fighting game on the hologram ball. So far, they're his favorite.
Each kid has taken to a different set of guys. Rosie, Pansy, and I have decided to go with the ones our babies like. I can't speak for Tibby. She talks even less than me. I can't figure out if she's unbearably shy, or a bitch.
I place him on the floor and he runs to Echo, who picks him up, and puts him on his lap. He clicks away as he plays the game. Effectively kicking Octavius’s ass. Forrest mimics the clicking.
Pansy swoops down and picks up Lark while also holding Jem. He cries as he's been caught. She hands him over to Rosie who takes him to the changing table. Rosie taps her implant and opens I.C.A.W "My baby refuses to wear a diaper anymore. What do I do?"
"Perhaps the child is ready to be toilet trained." A small toilet comes out of the wall next to the changing table. "Build communication with your child and when he feels he needs to go, have him tell you, then place him on the toilet so he can learn to control his bowels and bladder."
Rosie huffs. "You make that sound easy. This child wants to be wild." Lark kicks at her chest as she tries to get another diaper on him.
"No dippy!"
"Well you can't poop and pee wherever you feel like it. You either go in that toilet or you wear a diaper."
"Oilet"
Rosie lifts him off the changing table, still devoid of a diaper. She places him on the toilet. "You go poop and pee in there, nowhere else."
He sits there for a long minute before he his fart echoes throughout the room. I hold in a laugh as he sighs with relief. "like oilet."
Rosie stares at him with her mouth gapping. "Seriously, you took to that like a fish in water."
"I resent that statement!" calls Arrow, as he comes out of his dorm.
Octavius snorts. "You're part dolphin, it doesn't count!"
At least they aren't at each other's throats anymore. I can't believe we only have a few days left here. Soon everything is going to change.
King comes to stand next to me. "May I speak to you in private for a moment?"
I banish away the thoughts of him picking me up in his arms and kissing me. I've come to like him a lot. He's strong, but kind.
"Sure." I lead him to my room, but keep the door cracked. Ever since the shed closed doors unnerve me.
I sit on my small bed and motion for him to sit with me. "Wh-what did you wa-want to talk a-a-bout?"
He takes his seat next to me. He runs a hand over his short-cut black hair. "So, we leave in a couple of days, and I wanted to tell you..." he trails off.
"Yes?" I bite my lip.
"I want to be a part of the group you choose."
I grin. "I al-already planned on re-re-requesting you." I place my hand over my mouth.
He gently pulls my hand away from my mouth. "Don't be ashamed. You're still finding your confidence. May I kiss you?
My cheeks flare with heat. Don't turn invisible, don't turn invisible. I nod.
He leans down and presses his lips to mine. Warm, soft, smooth. His hand cups my cheek as I return the kiss. His tongue traces my bottom lip and I open for him. My heart flutters, as my core heats up. My hand goes to his well-defined shoulder.
"Ma! Ma!" Forrest calls from the sitting room.
I break the kiss. He blinks at me in surprise before smiling. "Go see what he wants."
I stand. "Thank you. I liked that.”
Chapter Eight
The Choice
"Ma, I want cheese." Forrest climbs onto the bed with me. He's been climbing out of his crib for days now.
I open my eyes. Today's the day we leave for Earth 2. The teacher has taught us all he knows about the planet. We've watched all the parenting films and even some documentaries explaining illnesses real children may get, along with how to know w
e've started ovulating, and what to expect during the pregnancy.
Doctor Langsting picked four of the guys to go through birthing scenarios, so that we have at least someone who knows what to do when it comes time for us to give birth.
"Ma! Cheese, I'm hungry." He crawls on top of my chest and lies down."
I laugh and sit up before cuddling him to my chest. "Yes, I heard you, Forrest. You want cheese. I'll go make you some. Let me get dressed first. Go see if anyone is in the sitting area."
I place him on the floor and he nudges open my cracked door, I re-crack it behind him, before I change into shorts and a tank top with the speed of a cheetah. He's back in the room within a minute. "Ibby is only one there."
Like everyone else, he doesn't like her. She'll pretend he doesn't exist. I grab my bag of clothes for the trip and reach of his hand. "Let's go make you some cheese."
Ivy cries from her crib and I stop to let her out. Tibby sits on one of the couches thumbing through something on her hologram screen. "Do you want cheese this morning, Ivy?"
She sucks on her thumb and nods. She takes my other hand and we head to the food preparation area. I take out the cheese pouches and set them to rehydrate before grabbing some crackers and two waters.
I set them up at their little dining table off to the side of the room. Tibby glares at them from over the couch. "Can't you eat quieter?"
The children look at her with wide eyes. I sigh as I grab myself a water. "Shut up, Tibby. Let them eat in peace. Ivy is out here, you can hide in your room until it's time to leave." I've gotten to where I can tell her off with no issue. Only her though, I still stutter like a fool around the guys.
"I'm not going."
I lift an eyebrow. "How do you think you'll get out of this? They've told us over and over we don't have a choice. I know you hate this. I'm sorry they couldn't pick someone who would be okay with this also, but this is your life, this is all our lives now. You're not the only one being sent to another planet to have babies and survive. Suck it up."