by Crist, J. D.
"Is anyone in there? We are not here to cause trouble. We just need a place to lay low for a while. These men are hunting us, and we can't seem to lose them." A blonde woman with pale skin was now talking to the camera.
"If they are in there, they aren't going to open up. Shit, I wouldn't open that gate for nothing." It was a man's voice, but Emily could not see the face that went with it. There were quite a few of them out there, and Emily knew that these were the people she had seen earlier. Another contraction wrapped her entire body in pain, and Emily watched as more blood fell to the floor. She didn't have time to think about this anymore. Emily reached out for the intercom button and spoke, "Are any of you a doctor?" The people she could see all began to smile and rush towards the camera. "We know a little medicine, and we have a guy who was an intern." The woman seemed desperate, and Emily understood, but she had to make sure the risk was worth it.
"Does he have experience with delivering babies with complications?" Emily felt like she was cruel, but she had to know.
"Yes, yes I do." A man rushed forward. He looked to be in his late twenties. "I am sure I can help, but we just need you to…." The man stopped speaking and looked behind him. Emily could hear the sounds and knew that Jeff and his gang had found them and were driving up fast. She reached over to the keypad and punched in the code, and opened the outer gate. As soon as the gate started to move, the people were out of view of the camera. Emily knew they were running inside.
"Shut it!" yelled a chorus of voices below, and Emily pressed the button to do just that. Within moments the sound of the gate shutting echoed through the town. Emily walked out and looked down over the wall. All of her pain seemed to disappear as she looked down at Jeff as he stared at the gate.
"Well, this is some fun new shit right here," he laughed as he stared at the gate. "Once we get in, I think we have us a new home, boys!" Emily listened as the group began to cheer and felt her blood begin to boil. She marched back to the control room and grabbed the rifle she had stored here. She walked back to the ledge and carefully aimed at the top of Jeff's head. Suddenly the pain was back, and she pulled the rifle just as she fired. The shot was not a total waste as, based on his reaction, she did catch Jeff in the foot. She moved a little further down the wall and let off another shot, and kept repeating the process. Jeff and his group didn't realize it was one person and quickly left. Emily put the rifle back and went over to look down into the area she called the in-between. Most of the group was huddled together, and a few men were looking at the inner door.
"How many of you are there?" she called down, trying to hide the pain in her voice.
"Ten and two children," the skinny man spoke. "You were talking like you needed a doctor. Is someone here hurt?"
"Not exactly, are any of you bitten?"
"No, we are all fine," she could tell that her question had scared the man, and she understood why. To be immune like her was rare, and they had probably never seen it.
"Look, if you are, all I ask is that you stay in-between the walls for twenty-four hours. If you are fine after that, you would be free to come in." The man seemed taken back but again insisted they were fine.
Emily felt the pain come on even stronger this time, and she could not hide the pain.
"Ma’am, are you alright?" the man shouted up at her.
"I don't think so. Stairs are on the right," Emily forced herself to walk back into the control building, enter the code and open the inner gate. She knew she should shut it once they were in, but her eyes were going dark. Her face struck the metal ground, but the pain did not even register to her. Her vision continued to darken as she tried to watch the door. Within moments she heard Marley barking and realized he would not let them in here.
"Marley, no!" she cried with everything she could muster. Marley went quiet and walked into the door, and laid beside her on the ground. Emily tried to make out the faces of the people who ran in but could not. She was able to hear them clearly, though.
"Oh my god, why is there so much blood?" said a woman's voice.
"The baby may be a breach, or she may be hemorrhaging. I can't be sure until I examine her." She recognized the voice from the monitor.
"So, you are going to examine her and deliver a baby here?" This voice belonged to a much younger woman.
"I don't have much choice, do I?! It's not like we can take her to the hospital! Why don't you be useful and go try to find me some medical supplies!" the man shouted back at her.
"Clinic," Emily breathed no louder than a whisper. She wanted to yell it, but she did not have the strength. She felt someone lean down beside her while the doctor and the women continued to argue. "Clinic," she managed one more time.
"Will, all of you, shut up, there's a clinic down there, and that's where we need to go. Doc, is it safe to move her?" she recognized the voice as the man who said no one would open the gate. The Doc mumbled something that Emily did not understand. She felt herself being lifted off of the cool floor, and the heat began to burn through her body once more. She was going to protest but found some relief as her face rested against cool leather. Emily listened as they ran down the stairs and started up the main road.
"Well, genius, where is this clinic because everything here looks like it belongs in an old western movie." That young girl was starting to get on Emily's last nerve. She could tell that the man carrying was listening or looking to her to give them a clue as to which door it was. Emily tried, but she could not, and she knew that they were only a few doors down from it. The man was turning. She could tell he was searching when a bark rang out. "There!" he yelled at the others. Yet again, Emily owed her life to Marley, the pup who always seemed to know what she needed.
"Let's get her in a room!" the doctor said as they ran through the doors. Emily knew that the operation room would probably be best suited, and it was the third door. She tried and barely managed to tap her finger on the leather vest three times, but the man seemed to pick up on it. He ran down the hall, and Emily heard the door open.
"This will work," she heard the shock in the doctor's voice as they entered. He was not expecting this. Emily felt herself being laid down on the table but then felt someone take her hand as the dog walked around the room, inventorying everything.
"I'm just trying to help." She heard the older woman say. Then Emily listened to the snaps on the overalls come undone, and the woman removed them as carefully as she could.
"I have everything I need to do an emergency c-section except for the anesthetic," the doctor stated as he walked back into the room. The medication room is sealed with some kind of pin key.
"Then break the damn thing down!" the man holding her hand yelled. Emily could swear that he genuinely sounded concerned for her and the baby.
"It's a steel door. Not even you could put a dent in it. I can get the baby out, but the woman may.." the doctor trailed off, and Emily knew that without the medication, she was not going to survive. The grip on her hand tightened, and she could feel that the man holding it was getting angry. Emily struggled and began to tap on the man's hand lightly.
"Wait!" he yelled to the room, and Emily knew that he noticed. She tapped three times, counted to five, tapped eight times, counted to five, tapped one time, counted to five, and tapped five more times. She was sure she got it right and waited. "The code to the door is three, eight, one, five," the man announced. She could feel everyone in the room was staring at her but was glad she could not see it. She was lying on a table, half-naked, pregnant, and depending on a room full of strangers. She heard the doctor leave the room and return a few minutes later.
"I'm going to give you some medication now. The first will be to help with the pain, but it will cause you to fall asleep. The second will help fight any infection that may happen. Your baby is turned the wrong way, and we need to do a c-section to get it out. Do you understand?" the doctor seemed to be waiting for some kind of response like she had another choice. She tapped the man's hand one time.
"I think she's got it, doc," the man said. "Don't worry now, I'm going to stay right here until you wake up and make sure that baby of yours is okay," he whispered to Emily. She wanted to thank him or at least learn his name, but the first needle was already leaving her skin, and she felt herself fall to sleep.
Chapter 21
Emily knew immediately she was not in her bed. The events of the day rushed back into her mind, and she realized that she did not feel the baby anymore. Her eyes shot open, and she tried to sit up as quickly as she could. Her entire body was sore, and as she pulled back the blanket, she saw a bandage on her lower stomach. They had gotten the baby out, but she did not see it as she scanned the room. She had been moved to one of the exam rooms, and sleeping in a chair beside the bed was a strange man.
He had blonde hair, and it was pretty long for a man. Most of the men she knew kept their hair business short. He looked to be rather large, not fat but muscular and tall. He was wearing a pair of black boots, old blue jeans, and a dark shirt. Over the shirt, he had on a leather vest, the kind that bikers wear on television. Emily had not known any bikers in real life, so this was her only frame of reference. She remembered the cool leather against her cheek as she was carried and realized that this was the man who had promised to stay with her until she woke up.
Emily pulled the blanket back up over her bandage and tried to straighten herself in the bed. The man began to stir as she did, and when he saw that she was awake, he began to smile.
"I was beginning to think we had a real-life sleeping beauty on our hands. Doc said it would take you a while to wake up, but I've never seen him do surgery before, so I was a little worried."
Emily stared at the man, unsure of how he could be so casual. She had so many questions to ask before she could be the same, but, at the moment, only one came to her mind.
"The baby…" she reached for her stomach as she had all those months.
"Oh shit, of course. She's fine, they found some formula nearby, and she was crying up a storm, so they just took her out to try to get her to eat. She is a stubborn one though, she was refusing them and giving them all hell. Let me get her." He said as he stood up and walked out of the room. Emily only focused on one thing, though, her baby was a girl and was alive. Emily watched as a woman only slightly older than her walked in, holding a large yellow blanket. Emily could hear the cries of the baby that was hiding inside of it.
"Here you go, little one, here's your mama," the woman cooed as she handed Emily the blanket. As soon as Emily had her in her arms, the tears stopped. The two of them sat in silence for a long time, just staring at each other. Emily could not believe that after everything, she got to experience this moment. She was pulled back as the woman handed her the bottle. "Babies normally eat within a few hours of being born, but it has been nearly six, and she hasn't eaten anything. Maybe she was waiting for you?"
Emily took the bottle and offered it to her daughter, who immediately took it and started eating. Emily heard everyone in the room breathe a sigh of relief. The bottle was nearly empty before Emily looked up at the sound of someone coming into the room. She was surprised to see that everyone had left and the young man they had called Doc was now coming in.
"I'm happy to see that she is eating. That was a close one, too much longer, and we would have lost you both." Emily searched for words that were strong enough, but all she could manage was "Thank you." Doc seemed to understand and nodded.
"You will need to stay in bed for a while longer, and the bandage on your stitches will need to be changed regularly. I have put together some pain killers and antibiotics to help you," he said as he placed two bottles on the table next to her. Emily finished feeding the baby and noticed that the doctor looked very awkward as he stood next to the door.
"Is there something else, Doc?" Emily asked, knowing that he had to have questions but did not want to bother her.
"We are all just trying to figure it out, and I told them that you needed to rest, but." Doc was now staring at his shoes.
"But they still want to know. It's fine; I do owe you all an explanation." Emily looked around the small room. "I don't think all of you are going to fit in here, though. Would it be okay with you if, using a wheelchair, of course, we moved this to my house?"
"Oh, of course, you would both rest better there anyway. I saw one in the supply closet. Give me just a moment."
Doc rushed out of the room, and Emily could hear him fighting to get the wheelchair in the room. Emily offered him the baby to hold while she climbed carefully out of bed and into the chair. When she stood, she was able to fix the gown to cover most of herself, but she still grabbed a blanket from the bed to put over her lap. Once she was covered, Doc handed the baby back and carefully pushed her out of the room. Emily tried not to look at the faces they passed as they made their way out of the clinic. The biker man had opened the door and smiled as she passed. Once outside, Emily watched as Marley ran from the front porch to her chair. As he neared, she held up a hand to signal him to be slow and watched as he carefully sniffed the baby in her arms. She knew he would be fine, and he would protect the baby just as he had protected her.
Once the doggy introductions were over, Emily looked around to see that everyone had gathered around her. The evening was setting in, and everything would be dark soon. Emily wanted to stall outside in the fresh air as long as she could before going inside.
"So, I'm sure you all have questions," Emily spoke to the group.
"Where is everyone else? What happened to them?" it was the younger voice, and Emily now saw that it belonged to a girl who was maybe nineteen years old.
"I am the only person who lives here. I found this place a little over three months ago, the gate was open, and I needed a place to hide from the same men that were chasing you."
"That doesn't tell us what happened to the people that were here, does it?" Emily turned to look at an older man, probably in his late fifties.
"I can only tell you what I was able to figure out by reading journals. This place was built by a doctor named Robert. He was part of the team that was deceived into creating the device and the toxin released in the sky the night the world went to shit. He was able to escape though the rest of his team was killed. He discovered that part of the population would be immune to the airborne toxin and wouldn’t become the walking corpses from it. He also discovered that an even smaller part of the population would remain immune even if bitten. He built this place to make the antidote and keep those he safe. According to his notes, he thought he had bought himself enough time, but the flash happened sooner than he expected. The crew he had working on this place was not done, he had not gathered everyone he needed to, and there was no antidote. He tried to contain it, but the dead took over the town. He climbed up on the wall, in the control room where you found me, and opened the gate. He made his final notes and took his own life."
Emily continued, "I learned from his notes what all the codes were and changed them to something that only I knew. I thought it would help protect my family in case someone ever got in. I worked the past few months to clear the dead still here, and they have all been accounted for at this time. I have them all piled on the outskirts of the city to be burned but have been unable to. All of them except for Robert, I buried him in the in-between. It was a thank you for giving me a chance to survive."
Emily looked around at the faces. Half of them were in shock, and some of them thought she was full of shit.
"In the market, there's glass bottles of milk that are dated as early as today. How do you have fresh milk?" the older woman asked.
"There is a farm on the side of town. There are cows, sheep, horses, chickens, and goats. I haven't been able to figure out how to milk the goats just yet. There is also a lot of supplies for growing crops, but as I got here at the end of December, I have not tried to figure that out yet."
"If you were alone, then how did you.." it was the younger girl, and she seemed to be confu
sed about how Emily had gotten pregnant.
"I had a husband before the world went to shit. Found out after I was separated from my family that I had a little surprise on the way."
"When you let us in, you said if we were bitten that you only asked that we stayed in the middle section for twenty-four hours, and if we were fine, we could come in. It's pretty well known that if you get bitten, you are dead. Why would you say that?" It was the skinny man this time.
Emily looked over at Doc and the biker. They had to have seen the scar when she was in surgery. The looks on both of their faces told her that they had kept it a secret. Emily reached up with one hand and pushed her hair back, and then pulled down the shoulder of her gown so everyone could see the scar. A few gasped, and a couple tightened their grasp on their weapons.
"Everyone calm down, she's fine!" it was the biker yelling as he moved between her and the others.
"Look at it. It's healed and has been there for a while." Doc stepped up to join him.