Radioactive - Book 1: Birth 🪼

One

My name is Ramey Fountain but most people just call me R. My parents are married but my siblings are from either or of them except for two of them, twins. I live in a world where radiation caused regular humans to have their insides changed and be able to produce their own children, men and women alike. The change came with the next generation but there were ways that two people who were in love could make it where they could enjoy the action of actually making the children instead of just waiting every two-five years for your body to grow, depending on who you were. There were pills that people could get from their doctors that only caused one parent to get pregnant instead of both if you wanted to do things that way. If a woman or man got pregnant out from their normal time, they would skip another five years until the next swell.
But that's only if a person chooses to have a baby like that by choice. Those people are called Traditionalists because they use the old school method of sex to get the desired result. By law, those without medical problems can't remove anything but the pills are available to halt things.
Then there are those who can't have children on their own because of medical reasons, such as myself. I don't really remember much about that day but I remember waking up and being in the hospital, the doctor telling me that I was unable to have children by myself. I would be able to carry them but creating them was not going to happen. Thus, I missed my first swell at fourteen, when everyone gets their first swell a month after their fourteenth birthday. I should be on my second swell, but I can't because of who knows what is medically wrong. I'm the freak of my family with only three people besides myself knowing why I'm this way: my mother, Ilaen, my father, Apelles, and my oldest mother-brother, Balister. All my other siblings just think I'm defective and make fun of me for it, which I don't need. I know I don't work right and it sucks when I look at my little brother who is almost ready for his swell and I haven't had anything.

Even though my family is rich, both parents coming from rich families, I get teased often at school and even beat up about my lack of a baby. I can't even act like I have one because when a guy has a baby, the frame changes a little; wider hips, small pooch of belly fat, stretch marks in certain places. I have none of those and still have a more fit frame than I would if I had had my first child and my hips are regular. Everyone thinks I'm ugly.
There's this girl that I like though who is in the first of her second swell and she is so radiant. Her name is Diamond White but she prefers to be called Dia. Usually she is very fit and on the cheerleading squad but her swell came and she had to quit for the season until she has her baby. She's got platinum blonde hair and these gorgeous grey eyes that play in the light and she's just so beautiful. She would never take notice of me because I'm the skinny kid. She's got this boyfriend that has had about twelve kids already from being a Traditionalist, stealing the pills from his parent's bathroom. He's stupid.

"Hey, Skinny Hips, how's things going?" someone yells, throwing a can at me.
I ignore them as I go to my locker and open it up. I see some feet in front of me and see my friend Girvan Jones standing in front of me. He has his hand on his stomach and I sigh.
"You too?"
"In the swell? Yeah, found out two days ago." He says with a sigh. "Teeka asked about you last night."
"I'm sure she did. What did you tell her?"
"I just told her that you would visit sometime. She asked if you would bring your kids but I told her that you didn't have any because a fairy came and swept it away."
Teeka is Girvan's first child who, for some reason, adores me.
"Inventive. Besides, fairies don't go into normal people's houses like that. They have to be invited or brought in without knowing."
"I know how fairies work. Anyway, you have nothing? Not even a tiny bout of morning sickness?"
"I told you that I don't get the swell. That's all there is to it." I say, looking to make sure I have everything that I need. "Besides, there's nothing I can do about it. I just can't make babies."
Girvan smiles sadly at me as I close my locker and he puts his hand on my shoulder.
"Hey, I'm sure they will find something to help you out. I mean, they're releasing new drugs all the time for us."
"Yeah, but we come second to the AlexGens and so a lot of stuff doesn't get made for us common people."
There are only three classes of people in the new society and it's those who are AlexGens, or who have Alexandria's Genesis, which is mostly made up of women; then there are normal people, and then there are the Altered. The Altered are those who were physically mutated. They are kept out of our sectors because they are considered tainted and are said to be able to be infected.
Don't get me wrong, the three classes are intertwined. People from every group can have people from the other group. It's just hard to classify everyone when it's not so obvious sometimes until they are old enough to see any changes. But it all has to do with the radiation that is still somewhat in the air. It still does things to people all the time.
"Anyway, I'm sure they'll develop something that will allow you to get pregnant."
"Maybe I'm just defective?" I say, looking at him.
"Well, I can't say anything, R." He looks up and sees some of his friends. "Well, I have to go. Sorry about not being in the swell."
I wave to him and sigh, feeling even more depressed. Girvan is an alright friend but he doesn't like to be seen with me a lot of the time, especially when his friends are nearby. He's had his own hand in throwing things at me and has overseen some fights I've gotten into. I can't blame him though because I'm such a horrid person. I mean, I wouldn't want to be seen with the likes of me either...

School ends and I get home, smelling someone cooking something in the kitchen. Balister looks out of the kitchen and smiles at me.
"I'm glad you're home. Could you please get something for me?" he asks nicely, pushing up his glasses.
I nod and walk into the kitchen and he motions with his foot to the bottom drawer of the fridge.
"Could you please get that? I'm trying to stir things and such but I can't do a thing."
I nod and reach into the drawer to pull out an onion for him."
"How many do you need?"
"Uh, make it two, just in case. If you wouldn't mind, would you cut them and add it to this?"
"Yeah."
He grins and I smile at him as he waddles his way over to the stove. He's about four months pregnant with my brother-nephew. It's really hard to keep track of all the brothers and sisters that my parents had before they were married and started doing the T-pills, or Traditional pills. I'm from my father but Balister is from my mother. It's all very strange but it keeps the family line.
"How's your baby?" I asked, peeling the onion in my hand.
"Doing alright. This one is a pretty ferocious thing. Keeps moving about." He looks at me and smiles a little. "You still haven't had anything?"
"No. You know I can't."
"Oh, right, I forgot. I can't imagine at all..."
I just turn away and cut the onion in silence, not wanting to talk about it. See the reason that I can't make any children is because when I was fourteen and my body tried, they found out that I had an infected womb and so I had to have everything removed. There is no way on this green Earth that I will be able to have a child like everyone else. Everyone is convinced it's a defect but I know the truth.
My body rejected me, just like everyone else.