by Harley Tate
Emily’s eyes widened and she scampered back to her mother leaning against the wall. Midge dusted herself off and stood up.
Danny eased closer. “I didn’t know ninjas had a code.”
She punched him in the arm. “You totally should have saved me.”
“And how was I supposed to do that while standing watch?”
“You have a gun, don’t you?”
Her eyes glinted with barely held back laughter and Danny shook his head. “I don’t think Tito would let me stay in charge if I went around threatening small children with firearms.”
“Could be a good way to get out of it. Like breaking the dishes when unloading the dishwasher.”
Danny stepped back in mock horror. “You didn’t.”
Midge shrugged. “Beats dish duty.”
He laughed and so did she. Hiding in a bomb shelter wasn’t all bad. Danny braced himself on the table, about to hop up on top and resume his watch, when a sharp cry obliterated the silence. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he turned to find Cassandra curled up on the floor, face pale apart from two red blotches on her cheeks.
Oh, no. Danny hurried over. “What’s wrong?” He knelt in front of her.
Jack leaned forward, hands on his wife’s back. “All of a sudden she doubled over and cried out. I thought she was asleep.”
Cassandra panted, eyes glazed over. “I’ve been having contractions ever since the carriage ride.”
“What?” Jack rose up in alarm. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t want to worry you.” Her lower lip trembled. “They could go away like they have before. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Danny reeled. He didn’t know the first thing about labor and delivery. “How far along are you?”
Cassandra focused on the floor.
“She’s thirty-seven weeks.” Jack’s voice warbled on the last word and Danny almost cursed out loud. He knew enough to know she could be in real labor. He spun around looking for anyone who could help. There were two other mothers in the room. The older women might know something. They weren’t entirely without resources.
But a dingy, dank bomb shelter? It was no place to have a baby. What if there were complications? What if she needed a C-section? Danny’s mind reeled. He turned back to Jack and Cassandra. “I’m a pre-med student but I’m way out of my depth here. Please tell me you’ve taken some classes and know what to do.”
“We planned on a natural birth.” Cassandra glanced at her husband.
“We can still make it to St. Joseph. There’s a small hospital there, remember?” Jack rubbed his wife’s back in circles. “We can head there after the fallout clears. Just breathe.”
Cassandra focused on her breathing, in through her nose and out through her mouth. After a few minutes, her color improved. “I think I’m okay.” She swallowed. “It’s probably a false alarm.”
Danny exhaled in relief. “Good.” He made eye contact with Jack. “Call me over if anything else happens, okay? We’ll try to find someone who can help.”
Jack nodded and Danny stepped back. Midge tugged on his arm from behind, and he followed her a few steps away.
“Please tell me she’s not in labor.”
“I’m not sure, to be honest,” Danny said, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “She’s so close to her due date. I wish we had known when they got in the carriage.” He chastised himself for not asking. If he’d known she could have the baby any day, he’d have tried hard to control the horses and take the corners wider. He thought about the time they jumped the curb. Could his driving be the reason she was having contractions?
“Do you know how to deliver a baby?”
Danny’s mouth dried at the thought. “Not a clue.”
“Then let’s just hope it’s a false alarm.” Midge walked back over to the table and Danny followed her. They resumed their positions with him keeping watch and her right beside him on the table.
Danny stared across the room at Cassandra still huddled on the floor. Both Midge and Cassandra hoped for a false alarm, but he was afraid they wouldn’t be that lucky.
Chapter Eleven
MIDGE
Saturday, 11:00 pm CST
The Heritage Arms Apartments
Gary, Indiana
Midge woke with a start. A water bottle pressed into her cheek and she pushed herself upright before rubbing at the indents on her face. Sometime after retreating to the table, she’d fallen asleep slumped across a case of water. Not the most comfortable sleeping arrangements, that was for sure.
Her entire body ached. Why hadn’t Danny woken her up? The spot beside her sat empty. Where was he?
A moment later, she had her answer. Randy and Mikey were back at it, trading full-blown punches this time. Tito and Danny circled the dueling men, ducking out of the way when a fist or a foot flew their way.
Midge lurched into action. If the Fresh Boys who shot at them inside the warehouse were any indication, Randy and Mikey wouldn’t take kindly to Danny breaking up their turf battle. She rushed the group as Mark and the other man with a family surged to their feet.
Five on two seemed like reasonable odds. Midge approached Randy, aiming the boot of her heel at his knee. She hit him hard on the side and his leg buckled. Mikey’s swing went wide without Randy’s face to intercept and Mark caught him around the middle.
Midge dove on top of Randy, her frame no match for his broad shoulders. A foot landed hard on her hip, but she grunted away the pain, holding fast to his arms as he thrashed beneath her. The other father in the group rushed up to assist and between the two of them, they managed to immobilize Randy’s arms and haul him to his feet.
Danny and Mark held Mikey a few feet away, all of their chests heaving with effort. Tito dabbed at a spot of blood on the corner of his mouth and stood between the two men. “That will be the last fight the two of you have in this shelter.” Tito almost growled the words as he stared first Randy and then Mikey down. “I so much as catch the two of you looking at one another, there will be hell to pay.”
The two men pouted like children caught being naughty, faces pointed toward the floor.
“Is that clear?” Tito’s words hung in air.
After a beat, Mikey sagged against his captors. “Yeah.”
Randy nodded. “I guess.”
Midge and the other man let Randy go and Mark and Danny did the same with Mikey. The two thugs shuffled off to their corners once more, plopping down onto cardboard boxes and crossing their arms in a huff.
Midge worked out her shoulder, sore from holding Randy so tight. If Tito wasn’t willing to kick them out, then something had to be done. The next time the two of them went at each other someone else could be hurt. She searched for Emily’s blonde head and found her curled up against her mother. She couldn’t let a couple of scumbags hurt that little girl or anyone else in the bomb shelter.
If they wouldn’t listen to Tito’s orders, maybe they would listen to the truth. She headed straight for Mikey, about to lay everything she knew out in the open, when a hand wrapped around her bicep.
“What are you doing?”
Midge spun to find Danny staring at her with a mix of horror and concern. She shook his hand off. “I’m going to talk to them. Tell them what’s going on outside. If they understand they’ll die if they go out there, maybe they’ll cool it for a while.”
Danny shook his head. “It’ll never work. They don’t want to listen to anybody.”
“Even if they don’t, I have to try.”
Danny looked almost pained. “Be careful.”
She manufactured a reassuring smile. “I’ll be fine.” Without waiting for Danny to change his mind, Midge walked over to the corner Mikey occupied and squatted down in front of him.
“Do you mind if I talk to you for a second?”
He shrugged, trying hard to act nonchalant. But even in the weak light, Midge could see the swelling around his right eye and the purple bruising spr
eading across his jaw. He was lucky Randy didn’t get a few more punches in.
“You noticed the power go out, right?”
“Whatchu think I am, stupid or somethin’?”
Or something is like it. Midge tried again. “That wasn’t an accident. It was a terror attack. Same with the bomb that hit Chicago and all the other big cities in the United States.”
Mikey wiped his mouth. “I thought you was crazy for jumpin’ on Randy like that. Dude’s got to outweigh you by double. But bombs all over? Now I know you off your rocker.”
“If you don’t think it’s true, then why are you down here?”
He hesitated. “Maybe I like nasty basements and skinny white girls with greasy hair.”
Midge let the insults go. “You wouldn’t be down here if you didn’t think it was true. A nuclear bomb went off in Chicago and twenty-four other cities. We’ve got to stay down here for forty-eight hours.” She edged closer and lowered her voice. “If you can’t play nice with Randy, Tito will kick you out.”
“So what?” Mikey scoffed and crossed his arms. “I can take care of myself.”
“Not if the radiation gets you. First you’ll start to get sick, then you’ll start throwing up. Add in diarrhea and losing your hair in giant clumps, and sores spontaneously erupting and bleeding all over your body. Eventually your body will just give out, but not before you’ve lived through hell.”
Mikey’s face softened until he caught sight of Randy across the room. All at once, he puffed out his chest and waved a hand in Midge’s direction. “Get outta here girly. I don’t need no crazy talk.”
She sighed and stood up. Did the hatred between the two gangs really run that deep? Would Mikey really be willing to die from radiation poisoning if that meant he could one-up Randy? She turned toward the other thug. Maybe Mikey wouldn’t listen, but she could still convince Randy to play nice.
With a tight smile on her face, she walked over to Randy. “Did you hear what I said to Mikey?”
“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.” He rolled his shoulders like a boxer in the middle of two rounds. “If what you said is true, then bring it on. Affiliated can rule Chicago, too.”
Midge fought back a wave of frustration. Randy cared more about his gang gaining new territory than whether he would even survive long enough to enjoy it. Nothing she could say would change either of their minds. They were too set in their hatred of each other to budge.
She turned without another word and stalked back toward the table and Danny. Halfway across the room, a pained cry stopped her still. There was only one person it could be: Cassandra. Midge swallowed. They might have bigger problems than a couple of gang members after all.
Chapter Twelve
MIDGE
Saturday, 11:30 pm CST
The Heritage Arms Apartments
Gary, Indiana
As Midge turned around, Danny slid off the table and rushed by her. A tortured moan rose up from that side of the room and Midge braced herself. So much for a false alarm.
She sucked in a breath of stale air and approached.
Danny crouched in front of Cassandra, hands braced on his knees. “What’s happening?”
Jack ran his hand in circles over his wife’s back. “The contractions are only getting worse. We’ve been trying to calm down, but they just keep coming.”
Cassandra gritted her teeth. “You’ve been trying to calm down. I’ve been trying not to scream.” She blew puffs of breath out her mouth as another wave of pain racked her body. Sweat flattened the hair around her face and darkened most of her shirt.
Midge swiveled, staring out at the concrete floor and bare brick walls. Apart from Tito’s sleeping bag and a few blankets, dust and grime coated every surface. She knew women still had babies at home, but she guessed no one opted for a forgotten bomb shelter as their first choice.
She thought back to health class in high school. The unit on childbirth consisted of a handful of pages in a textbook and a video of a live birth that scared her half to death. Three guys in her class threw up. A girl passed out. Midge swore off dating for a year. And they watched it all on a nineteen-inch tube TV with a habit of running static across the lower third of the screen.
This was live and in living color. Midge swallowed. They were going to have to handle this, somehow.
“That… one… passed.” Cassandra gulped down a lungful of air. “Does anyone have some water?”
Midge leapt up and raced to the table of supplies. She fished a bottle from the half-empty case and hurried back. She handed it to Jack as he shoved his phone in his pocket.
“They’re running about six minutes apart as far as I can tell.” Jack twisted off the cap and helped Cassandra take a drink. “I think this is the real thing.”
Danny turned to Midge, eyes wide. “Get Tito. We need some help.”
Without a word, Midge raced across the room to where Tito lay once more on his sleeping bag. She didn’t even have to touch him.
“Is it the baby?” He rolled over and pushed himself up with a grunt.
Midge nodded.
He ran a hand down his face and slapped his cheeks to wake up. “I’ve got a first aid kit in the locker. Ask everyone here if they know how to deliver a baby.”
With her heart beating as fast as a bird’s, Midge hurried up to the first group clustered against the wall. She reached out and gently shook the older woman’s shoulder.
The woman roused with a jump and a snort and immediately reached for her glasses. “Is something wrong?”
“Do you know how to deliver a baby?”
The woman’s eyes widened behind her glasses as she stretched to peer past Midge. “Oh my heavens.” She shook the woman still sleeping beside her. “Gretchen, wake up.”
“Huh? What is it? Did I forget to put on the kettle?”
“No. It’s the pregnant woman. She’s about to have her baby.”
Gretchen pushed a wave of gray hair away from her face. “Goodness gracious. Here?”
Midge nodded. “Do either of you know how to deliver a baby? Can you help?”
Both women shook their heads in slow motion. “We don’t have any children, I’m afraid.” Gretchen gave a pained smile. “We’re old maids.”
A frown tipped the corners of Midge’s mouth, but she managed to hold back a curse. “Thank you anyway.” She hurried over to the next family. Emily’s blonde hair stretched across her mother’s lap. Midge hated to wake them up, but she had no choice.
She shook the mother until her eyes blinked open. “The pregnant woman is in labor. I’m looking for someone who can help.”
The mother’s mouth fell open. “Me? I had an emergency C-section. With the epidural I couldn’t figure out how to push.”
“Sorry to wake you.” Midge moved on, waking Mark up and asking him the same questions. It didn’t take long to rule everyone out. She stood in the middle of the room, panic bubbling up her throat.
Without modern medicine, how many babies died during childbirth? How many mothers? She looked back at Emily and her mother. An emergency C-section wasn’t an option for Cassandra. If she couldn’t deliver her baby the old-fashioned way, neither one would survive.
“Any luck?” Tito approached, carrying his sleeping bag under one arm and a bright red first aid kit under the other.
Midge shook her head.
He cursed. “Then we’re on our own.” He thrust the sleeping bag at her. “Take this and lay it out in the first room on the right. It’s not much cleaner than in here, but it can give them some privacy.” He paused. “And cut down on the noise for everyone else.”
Midge felt the blood drain from her face, but she did as Tito instructed. The small room took up no more than a ten by ten footprint, but without as many people or supplies, it was better than the main room. She shook out the sleeping bag and laid it out against the far wall.
Tito entered a moment later and set down an LED lantern. “I don’t know how long the batteries in this th
ing are supposed to last, but hopefully it will see us through.” He unzipped the first aid kit and spread it out on the edge of the sleeping bag. He pulled out a pair of gloves, a suture kit, sterilizing solution, and a scalpel.
Midge pointed at the blade. “What’s that for?”
“Cutting the umbilical cord.”
She shuddered. “Right.”
“Help me walk Cassandra in here.” As Midge turned toward the door, Tito grabbed her arm. “She’s in a lot of pain, so go slow. We need to keep her calm and upbeat. That’s the most important thing.”
Midge nodded and followed Tito back out into the main room. Danny still crouched beside Cassandra, checking her pulse. “She’s stable for now. Contractions are four minutes apart.”
Tito spoke up. “We’ve set up a place in the other room. It’s a bit more secluded.”
“Don’t want me waking up the whole neighborhood?” Cassandra gritted out the joke, but no one laughed.
Tito shifted on his feet. “I thought you might appreciate the privacy.”
“We do.” Jack rose up. “Thank you.” He reached under his wife’s arm. “Come on, honey. I’ll help you up.”
With Danny on one side and Jack on the other, Cassandra struggled to her feet. As soon as she reached vertical, another contraction arched her back. She cried out in pain and a gush of fluid soaked her pants.
Danny shot Midge a look. The panic on his face must have been reflected in her own. They were so far out of their depth it wasn’t close to funny.
Cassandra rolled her head to the side and drew in shallow little breaths. Her husband whispered in her ear and she paused, managing to suck in a deeper breath through her nose and blow it out through her mouth.
“That’s it, honey, just like we practiced in class.” Jack helped her take first one step and then another. “You’re doing great.”
“Class?” Danny couldn’t mask the hope in his voice.
Jack looked up over the hunched form of his wife. “We planned a natural birth. It was supposed to be in a hospital in case of complications, but we both decided no epidurals and no pain medicine.”