After the Fall

9: Who Are You?

"Please, don't hurt us." The woman rocked the whining baby in one hand and raised her free hand, pleading.

"What-how-?" Tamara stuttered while absentmindedly readjusting her face mask, but I suspected I knew what she was thinking. How was what we were witnessing even possible?

The woman's eyes were wide with fear. "We ain't no threat. I promise." The two teenaged girls at her side agreed with a nod. Clearly, they were frightened too. Neither the woman nor the girls looked familiar, not that they should. There were hundreds of people in the hemi and I couldn't meet them all, even if I could I wouldn't remember everyone. Still there was something different about these girls. Their clothing was worn, faded and tattered. Their faces were sunken at the cheeks, causing black shadows to collect in the dips and creases of their naturally dark complexion. And they gave off an odd, unpleasant odor, different than the familiar stench of sickness or sweat. And judging from the frame of the girls, they looked to be around thirteen or fourteen years of age, which added to the mystery. No one was born in the facility after the door leading to the surface closed. There hadn't been any announcement of births. Not even the birth of the child in the woman's arms.

Taking the words from Tamara's mouth, Vince lowered his firearm. "Who are you?"

"I'm Natasha. These girls here are my nieces." She gulped, clearing the shakiness from her heavily accented voice. "This here is my son, Baby Malcolm." She bounced the infant slightly and held him against her chest.

"That's a baby." The words slipped from my mouth before I had a chance to let them register. How was that even possible, and what did it mean that there was one in the facility? They would've made a huge announcement, and news of a birth would have definitely been displayed on the wall monitors for everyone to see.

So why had it not?

Vince peeked around the nearest darkened corner. "Where is everyone?"

"They're focusing on the other lift." Natasha pointed toward the east end of the level. "Since nobody from the lower half is over there to stop 'em. But a few of 'em are keeping an eye out on this side here. My man's with them. You won't hurt nobody, will you? We're not supposed to be down here yet, but we snuck past when they wasn't looking."

Tamara scoffed. "Snuck past? What-?" She shook her head, confusion in her wide eyes. "What about contamination? How are you breathing the air?"

Natasha pointed to Vince and shrugged. "The same way he is."

I exchanged worried looks with Vince and Tamara. No doubt they were just as baffled as I was. What the hell was going on?

Tamara studied the girls with her eyes. "The baby's not hurt, is he?"

"That depends." Natasha cradled the dark, curly head of the baby in her palm as she kept him pressed against her. "Are ya'll gonna hurt him?"

I shook my head, a bit insulted by her judgment of my character, but given the circumstances, I understood her skepticism. "Of course not."