The Dead World I Live In

The Dead I Give Life To (Chapter 4)

“What are you thinking?” I asked, trying to break the silence. I stared at Chase, his elbows resting on his knees and his head in his hands. He looked up, his hair falling in front of his eyes. I went and sat cross legged in front of him, moving the stray hairs away from his face.

“About her” Chase replied, and I quietly went ‘Oh’.

“We haven’t decided on a name” I reminded him, and he didn’t say anything “I like Nadia, but I was thinking Nadia Itxaro, you know, try and double our luck” I joked, but he still didn’t reply.

“I haven’t told you everything” Chase announced suddenly, taking my hands in his. He dropped from the chair onto his knees, so now he was level with me, looking at me directly in the eyes.

“Everything, what do you mean everything?” Nervously, I looked over to the incubator containing Nadia Itxaro. I’d never noticed until now but it seemed massive compared to her tiny frame.

“She was early, but she’s not premature. Ava, I don’t know exactly what’s wrong but, she’s...Growing”

“Of course she’s growing! She’s a baby Chase, that’s what they do when they’re not pooping or sleeping” I laughed, but Chase placed a hand on my shoulder that slapped the smile of my face.

“No, I mean...Rapidly growing. Ava, she was juts under four months early. That’s why you had pain in your stomach, but your water didn’t burst. Your skin couldn’t stretch any more at the rate that your baby was growing”

I swallowed, and took a couple of deep breaths before replying “What does this mean then?” Chase stroked the side of my face, and the serious look on his face made me tremble.

“I really don’t know exactly Ava but...If she keeps growing at this rate, in a few weeks she’ll be our age, and soon she will have over taken us, and she’ll be older than us”

“You’re telling me that our daughter will be older than us? That our baby girl will be dead before we will? Oh god...” I breathed, scrambling to my feet. I paced back and forth, trying to get my head around this.

There was a possibility Chase was wrong, right? How is he meant to know all this? He’s not even a real doctor! Bile was rising in my throat, and I needed air, quick.

“I need a minute” I told Chase, dashing out into the quietness of the hall. I closed the door behind me, leaning against a nearby wall. My knees buckled, and I crumbled to the floor, tears brimming in my eyes.

Why me? Why did I have to be the chosen one? Why did I have to get knocked up with a zombie kid that’s not a zombie but that is gonna grow up before me? Why me?

If people could hear inside my head, they’d be deafened. However, since I wasn’t actually screaming all this aloud, the corridor was eerily silent, until I heard footsteps approaching.

In the darkness of the hall, I saw Kain slide down beside me.

“Hey, you okay?” He whispered, and I nodded, resting my head on his shoulder

“Why did you do it?” I asked him, referring to our little...’Encounter’ earlier.

“I don’t know. Because I love you Ava, and I hated seeing you in pain, and I wanted to make the pain go away for you Avey-baby” I chuckled quietly at Kain’s use of his old nickname for me, back when I was his girlfriend.

“Do you love Paulie?” I snuggled down into his shoulder, and Kain wrapped an arm around me.

“Yes. I do. I love her a lot”

“Do you love her more than me?”

“No”

“Oh”