“The hospital? Why?” Root asked.
David jerked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at the telephone. “Guadalupe called San Gabriel’s hospital a few minutes ago when she was in here. She asked if they had a Che-girl there ready to deliver a baby and they said one was just brought in today with blue hair. Does your friend have blue hair?”
Zero and Root both nodded.
“Okay, then.” David pulled the cigar from his mouth and knocked some of its ashes into a tray on the stand next to him. He pushed the intercom button and spoke something incoherent into it. He looked up. “Guadalupe will drive the two of you to the hospital, but I want you to do one thing for me.” He smiled, looking back and forth between them. “When Mud and her baby are ready to be released from the hospital, I expect all of you to come back here. We have a lot more to discuss.”
Chapter 15
Zero and Root sat in the back seat of a small blue sedan while Guadalupe drove them to the hospital. They passed only farmland for the first few miles—small houses located between crops of corn, mango trees, papaya, and other plantations. It felt very strange to look at these houses now. Instead of wondering what the Remnants inside were like, he had to try to wrap his head around the thought that Remnants were actually just regular people. He had so many questions bubbling up inside him that he felt like he was going to burst. But for now, he was trying to push them all aside so that he could focus on what was about to happen: Mud giving birth to that baby.
After a few more miles, tilled farmland turned into concrete sidewalks and cobblestone roads. The buildings were erected side-by-side with little or no space between them. People—all of whom were much smaller than Zero and Root—walked around the streets chatting with one another and carrying on like normal people. A group of young boys kicked a ball down the street. They picked up their ball as they drove past, then continued to play once they had driven by.
Guadalupe pulled the car into a parking lot. Zero looked up at the front of a large building and saw the words Hospital San Gabriel written above the front entrance. He stepped out of the car and set foot in the parking lot. As they walked toward the entrance, people stopped whatever they were doing just to stare at them. Inside the building the people acted the same way, peeking around corners to get a glimpse of them, and whispering amongst themselves. Some of those who were caught staring would quickly pretend they had been looking at something else, while others didn’t bother to look away.
Guadalupe exchanged pleasantries with someone at the front desk, while Root and Zero stood to the side.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt this out of place in my life,” Root said. “I didn’t even feel this weird when they first sent me to Exile City.”
“I know what you mean. How can we consider everyone else the oddball when we’re the only ones who look like this?”
Guadalupe tugged on Root’s shirt and pointed at a lady approaching with a clipboard in hand. She looked at the clipboard and said, “Come with me. We go to room 210.” Her way of speaking was so unusual that Zero could barely understand her. “You guys are Che-boys, no?” she asked as they followed her down a long hallway.
“I guess so,” Root said. “Is it that obvious?”
She laughed. “Yes. Obvious. You guys very very tall.” She placed her hand on top of her head, then raised it up to their height. “Che-boys always very very tall. How you…how you say? How you escape from Che-land?”
“It’s kind of a long story, really,” Root said. “Maybe we’ll tell you some other time.”
She stopped in front of a door with the number 210 on the front of it. She cracked it open. A woman inside let out a terrible scream. Zero had only known Mud for a short time, but he could pick out that voice anywhere. He pushed past the lady with the clipboard and entered the room.
A man in a long white coat stood at the foot of the bed with a mask covering his nose and mouth. Two young women dressed in all green stood on both sides of the bed. All kinds of lights and machines crowded the area, beeping and flashing. And there she was, lying on her back with sweat dripping from her face. Mud looked like she was in horrible pain, but she was alive.
“Did you birth your baby already?” Zero asked.
“Not yet.” She gritted her teeth in pain and waved for him to come to her.
He hurried to her side and she latched onto his hand so tightly that he thought his fingers might break. She pulled his hand up to her face and pressed it to her cheek.
“You made it. I’m so glad you made it,” she said.
The man at the foot of the bed looked up at Zero. “My name is Dr. Diaz. These girls are nurses. Maria and Luisa.” He pointed at one girl, then at the other. He had the same funny way of pronouncing his words as did the lady who had escorted them down the hall. “You must be the husband.”
Zero looked at Mud before looking back at the doctor, confused. “What’s a husband?”
“Sorry. I should not have assumed you were married,” he said. “You are the father, right?”
Zero still looked just as confused. “I don’t know what a father is, either.”
“Forget it,” Dr. Diaz said. “We took ultrasound of baby and saw baby is breech. We…” He noticed that the confused expression on Zero’s face was only becoming more intense. “Baby needs to be born, but in dangerous position. We need to perform C-section.”
“C-section?” Zero shook his head. “I have no idea what that means.”
“It means we cut open her belly with knife and baby come out that way. Don’t worry. It very, very safe.” Dr. Diaz smiled and turned to converse with the nurses.
“See? I knew baby people couldn’t be born by vomiting them up,” Zero laughed. “There’s no way a baby could just come out of any body part. She has to be cut open. That’s how it works.”
Root nodded. “Makes sense.”
Dr. Diaz stood over Mud with a large scalpel in his right hand. Zero watched as he felt around her abdomen with his left hand, strategizing where he would make his first incision. He placed the edge of the blade on her skin and pressed down. As soon as he began to pull and the scalpel began slicing through her, Zero felt his knees weaken. Sweat gushed out of his every pore, faster than it would on even the hottest day. He felt his whole world go fuzzy and then…
“Dude. Are you okay?” Root asked.
Root and one of the nurses were now standing directly over him with worried expressions as he lay on the floor. At first, Zero felt like he did most mornings when he awakened from a long sleep, but he began to gather his wits. The linoleum floor felt cold. “How did I—? What just—?”
“You okay?” the nurse asked.
“I think so.” He sat up and wrapped his arms around his knees. His head still felt pretty hazy.
A high-pitched cry echoed through the room. Zero looked up and saw the doctor standing over Mud. He held a miniature person in his hands, but this baby didn’t look anything like what he expected one to look like. Its head was slightly lopsided. It was covered in all kinds of body fluids. Its skin was an odd shade of purple.
Zero looked at the doctor, then at each of the nurses. He was relieved to find them admiring the small child as if it was the cutest thing they had ever seen. Nobody seemed alarmed.
“Congratulations. You have beautiful baby girl,” Dr. Diaz said. He placed a clamp onto a tube protruding from the baby’s belly before cutting through it with a pair of scissors. He handed the crying baby to one of the nurses, who carried her a few steps away to clean her up.
Zero stood over the nurse as she wiped the baby down, cleared all the goo from her nose with a little blue sucker thing, squirted something into her eyes, then bundled her up. The nurse looked up at Zero then pointed at the baby with her eyebrows raised.
“Are you asking me if I want to hold her?” Zero took a step back and held his hands up in front of his ch
est. “I have no idea how to hold a baby person. I’ll squish her.”
“You won’t squish it,” Root said. “Just hold it.”
Zero held out his arms and the nurse placed the baby into them. He pulled her into his chest. He stared for a long time and felt like the rest of the world was disappearing around him. He had never seen anything so amazing and beautiful in all his life. She opened her eyes and blinked. Her irises were a dark gray, and although they didn’t focus on his eyes directly, he felt as if she was staring into the very center of him.
“Can I hold her now?” Mud asked, her voice not much louder than a whisper.
The doctor had just finished sewing her up. She looked exhausted, but excited as Zero shuffle-stepped to her side and placed the child into her arms.
“What’s her name?” Zero asked, looking at Dr. Diaz.
“You’re asking me? I don’t know. Naming her is your job.” He pointed at Zero and Mud.
“Her name is Hope,” Mud said. She traced her finger along the baby’s nose and lips before placing it into her tiny hand. She smiled when Hope squeezed the tip of her finger.
After about 15 minutes, Mud asked Root if he wanted to take a turn holding her. He jumped up from the chair he had been sitting in and rushed to her side. He held Hope close to his chest and walked slowly back to his seat, where he proceeded to make silly faces and stare at her.
Mud pulled on Zero’s hand and he leaned into her, placing his head on her shoulder. She wrapped her arm around him and rested the palm of her hand on the side of his face.
“A lot of good you were during the birth,” she laughed. “You went through all that trouble of tracking me down and getting to the hospital only to pass out on the floor when things got interesting.”
“I know. I have no idea what happened.”
She pressed her cheek to the top of his head and started to cry.
“What’s the matter? Why are you crying?” Zero turned to look her in the eye.
“I’m sorry. My emotions are all over the place, I know. I’m just scared. I have no idea how to raise a baby. I’ve never even seen one before today.”
“I’ll help you.” He squeezed her hand. “I realize I know even less than you do, but we’ll figure it out. Okay?” He rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand and closed his eyes, soaking in the moment.
“I found it,” Root said, causing Zero to open his eyes again and look up at him. He was staring down at Hope and rubbing one finger lightly on her cheek. “I’ve been trying to find the bigger picture for a long time now. Here it is.” He looked up. “Thank you, Zero. Thank you for getting me out of there. This changes everything.”
Zero looked at Mud. Her hair was still drenched in sweat, sticking out in every direction. Her cheeks were flushed pink and she looked like she was about to collapse from exhaustion. Still, she had never looked more beautiful.
He looked back at Root, knowing that he was right. Everything was different now. They had found the bigger picture, but this newfound understanding had created all new questions.
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The Elite: a dystopian post-apocalyptic young adult novella series (Remnants of Zone Four Chronicles Book 4) Page 9