30 Days of Undead Summer

June 3 -- #SciFiSaturday

June 3 -- Virus Zombies

Laura held her breath as the cold gel was squirted onto her swollen belly. The doctor at her side pressed the ultrasound machine into the gel and smeared it around. Please be a girl, she thought to herself. Please.

"That's the heartbeat." The doctor smiled and Laura tried to smile back at her. "It's okay, nothing to worry about yet."

"That's easy for you to say, you don't have a potential ticking time bomb inside you."

The doctor's smile shifted to a look of concern. "I know what you're going through. I have two girls of my own. Each time I felt that anxiety. It's hard to shake but you'll be okay."

"I will be but what about my baby?" Laura stared at the monitor, trying to decipher any clues but it was just a black and white blob to her.

"Look, this is a little arm here." The doctor traced a line with her finger. "This is a leg, this is--" she stopped and pulled her hand back.

"What? What is it?"

"It's, uh..."

"It's a boy, isn't it?" Despite her valiant efforts, Laura felt a wet drop trail down her cheek.

"I may just need to get a colleague of mine for a second opinion."

"A second opinion about what? He's a boy isn't he? Just tell me!"

The doctor didn't respond to Laura. She picked up a phone in the corner and said, "Gertie, could you send in Harriette, please?"

"Please, I can't take this, I need you to tell me what's happening!"

The doctor returned to Laura's side and held her hand. Her grip helped Laura centre herself again and she took a deep breath. There was a quick knock on the door and it swung open to reveal a woman with wispy hair and a brown tweed suit. "Do we have a candidate?" She asked and the doctor glared at her.

"This is Laura, she's a patient not a candidate."

"Excuse me," Laura asked. "Are you a doctor? You don't look like a doctor."

"I'm not a doctor, my name's Harriette and I represent Corialus Pharmaceuticals."

"I got my sample from your company," Laura said.

"Of course you did, we're the best. We were the first to bioengineer male specimens who are immune to the virus, and to my knowledge nobody does it better than us. Problem is, the male offspring of our specimens are still susceptible to the virus. Since we're all carriers, the male fetuses become infected over time and they turn before they're even born."

"So it is a boy? Do I have to terminate? Please, I've been waiting so long to be a mom!"

The doctor put a soothing hand on Laura's arm and said, "I'm sorry, I really am, but we might have another solution."

Laura looked from the doctor to Harriette. "What kind of solution?"

"See, the one problem we seem to be having is that the fertility rates of the female offspring of our specimens are quickly dropping. We're not sure why, and we don't know how to stop it so to save our species we've come up with a new plan."

"Can someone please just get to the point?"

"We've got an experimental treatment." Harriette held out a brown folder for Laura and she took it from her hand. "If it works, you could be the first woman to give birth to a natural male since this whole epidemic started. We could all make history, not to mention save the human race."

Laura flipped through a couple pages in the folder, if she was capable of understanding any of it that was prevented by the fact that she didn't seem to be processing any information. She glanced back up at the ultrasound, which was still displayed on the screen. She still couldn't make out any of her baby. "And if you're not successful?"

"Your baby will most certainly contract the virus."

"And then he'll, he'll..." Laura gulped. "He'll kill me. My baby will kill me from the inside."

"I'm positive this treatment will work, Laura." Hariette smiled and it looked like she was out of practice. The expression was hard and awkward on her face. "I can help you be a mom."

The doctor's hand moved from Laura's arm and she felt her fingers entwine with hers. "Okay," Laura finally said, "I'll do it."