Chapter 15
“What’s wrong with her?” Ridec was hurrying through the large high ceiling room behind the old timer.
“She’s not so much sick as she’s pregnant,” the old man explained pushing open another large oak door and entering, Ridec followed close behind.
“Pregnant? That’s not…” Ridec stopped in the middle of his sentence as he saw a young woman laying on the ground with a tattered old blanket tossed over her. She was making jerky movements and her face was contorted in pain.
“You think she’s ready to give birth?” The young man that was kneeling beside her bed looked up with concern at the group as they entered.
“I’ve never seen anyone that far along with an infection pregnant,” Mark muttered. “I didn’t even know it was possible.”
“Give birth?” Jessell looked appalled and Ridec could fully understand why. The young woman’s face was covered in orange lines which ran down to her neck and disappeared under the blanket she was clutching. “I say we shoot her before she turns into one of those zombies and try to eat our faces.”
“Don’t you dare hurt Kayla,” the young man that was kneeling on the floor behind Kayla got to his feet slowly.
“She looks pretty bad…” Kent started to say but the young man gripped a stick from nearby and pointed it towards the group.
“Don’t any of you come any closer.”
“Relax Steve, this boy here knows a little medicine,” the old man said.
“You can help Kayla?” Steve questioned with a great deal of hope in his voice.
“I…I’m not sure…” Ridec started to say but Jessell cut in.
“You think he can work miracles? That girl is as good as dead.”
“I can…” Again Ridec didn’t get to finish his sentence.
“No Ridec, I don’t want you anywhere near her.”
“But…”
“No butts Ridec.”
Jessell’s voice was hard and uncompromising and everyone in the room stared over at Ridec. Ridec couldn’t help but feel embarrassed, he hadn’t been on this earth long but he had been long enough to know that the men didn’t play second place to the women folk. In fact if there was one thing he had noticed it was the women seemed to depend on their men, and not so much the other way around.
“We didn’t introduce ourselves, how rude of me.” It was the old man who spoke first and broke the awkward silence. “I’m Kyle.”
“It’s…it’s nice to meet you, I’m Ridec.” Ridec was glad for the opportunity to change the topic and the focus from himself.
“This here is Kayla, she’s about due now,” Kyle pointed down to the young woman on the floor who was still writhing in pain. “That’s Steve there that’s getting himself all bent out of shape, he’s the baby’s father and Jake over there is his father.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” Ridec muttered.
“You got to help Kayla,” Steve said urgently but Ridec didn’t respond; the last thing he wanted was an argument with Jessell. The old man seemed to sense his hesitation and pressed on with the introductions. “That’s Nathan – he wandered in here much like you lot a few months back and has made his home with us.”
He was pointing at the young man that had been in the outer room with a stick in his hand, the man waved his acknowledgment.
“This is Tim he’s Oriel’s dad,” Kyle explained and the twelve year old boy hurried forward to shake Ridec’s hand then glanced at the others as if he was thinking about shaking their hands and seemed to change his mind.
“You want to be telling these strangers everything about us?” Tim, a middle aged angry looking man cut in.
“You were all strangers too,” Kyle pointed out and then continued with the introductions. “Tim is also Rea’s dad…” He paused for a moment and looked around the room and then stared over at Tim. “Where’s Rea?”
“How would I know? Do I look like I follow her around?” Tim demanded angrily.
The Tim guy definitely had issues, Ridec could see his mind and all that seemed to be there was anger and hatred. How could a father be so filled with those emotions?
“She’s your seventeen year old daughter, if you don’t care where she is who will?” Kyle demanded although he never raised his voice as he spoke.
“She’s always lurking around somewhere, never where she’s supposed to be,” Tim grumbled.
Ridec grimaced and glanced over at Jessell, mermaids didn’t have as strong a telepathic connection as mermen did so she couldn’t see what was going through Tim’s mind. Tim was remembering how his wife had died; he blamed his daughter for the incident. She had been loitering behind the family and one of the zombies had grabbed her. Tim wanted to run with his wife and son but Rea’s mother had turned back and saved her daughter’s life, she lost her own life in the process. Tim never forgave Rea for that.
“Well it’s a pleasure meeting all of you, this is…” Ridec started to say but Kent cut in.
“Skip the introductions; we don’t plan to hang around here long enough to make their names matter.”
“But you will help Kayla?” Steve persisted.
“I’m sorry,” Ridec muttered.
“You want to help her, don’t let that witch tell you what to do,” Steve barked angrily.
“I’m going to have to go with Kent on this – we’re not going to be here long enough to learn names or help people,” Jessell said quietly.
“Maybe…”
‘No maybe’s Ridec’ that last thought was planted firmly in his mind. ‘This place is dangerous and you seem bent on getting yourself killed here.’
“Please help us,” Steve begged just as Kayla groaned and grabbed her stomach.
“She seems to be going into labor, the contractions appear to be getting worst,” Kyle pointed out.
Kent gripped his knife firmly in his hand and positioned his feet steadily on the ground and looked ready for action.
“What are you doing?” Ridec asked.
“These unclean babies…” He stressed the word ‘babies’ in a derogatory tone. “You never know how they’ll come out.”
“How they’ll come out?” Ridec questioned.
“Don’t you dare hurt my child,” Steve screamed.
“Just calm down everyone,” Kyle said quietly.
“I think we need to be giving some thought to how to get out of this place,” Jessell put in.
“She’s in pain,” Ridec said.
“That thing she’s trying to deliver will probably kill her before it’s born,” Kent said through gritted teeth. “It’s nothing more than a monster.”
“We want our child,” Steve yelled.
“There should be a law against uncleans having kids,” Linda grumbled brandishing her own weapon. “It just makes this stupid place more dangerous.”
“What’s going to happen?” Pete whispered to Ridec nervously.
“I don’t know,” Ridec confessed but he knew he couldn’t let the girl just lay there and suffer.
“It’s moving; can you see how active it is? It’s definitely a mutant,” Kent said firmly.
Kayla screamed and the room went silent.
“It won’t be long now,” Steve whispered gripping her hand in his.
Ridec could see her mind, she was scared, really scared. This was her first child and she had been looking forward to it but things took a turn for the worst. She was in a great deal of pain and no one seemed to know what to do, Ridec’s heart went out to her immediately.
‘I need to help her Jessell,’ Ridec communicated his thoughts telepathically to Jessell. Would she listen to him?
“I said no Ridec.”
Jessell was communicating verbally and everyone stared over at her. It was true, the longer they stayed on the land it seemed the easier it was to communicate verbally instead of telepathically, Ridec couldn’t help wondering what else would happen to them as a result of them being on the land for an extended period of time. The place was so dry, Ridec could already feel his body dehydrating but would that be all? Jessell had been to the surface before; perhaps she might be able to shed some light on what he could expect.
“She’s bleeding.” It was Steve cutting into Ridec’s thoughts with a loud shout. Ridec looked down at Kayla and saw the small dribble of blood on her lips.
“The child’s so active it’s killing her, we have to take it.” Ridec was staring at Jessell pleadingly, he didn’t want to go against Jessell’s wishes but he couldn’t just stand idly by and watch a young girl die if there was even a chance that he could save her life.
“Please Jessell,” Ridec persisted.
“Fine, but at the first sign of trouble I’m going to kill them both.”
“Fine.”
“That’s not fine!” Steve cut in but Ridec ignored him. He knew it was pointless to argue with Jessell, it was enough of a victory that she had given him the go ahead to operate on Kayla.
“Do you have any disinfectants? Clothes…” Ridec started to say.
“Nothing, we’ve got nothing,” Steve said hurriedly.
“We need…” Ridec stopped as more blood trickled through Kayla’s mouth. There were many things he might need but right now he had to focus on just getting the baby out of Kayla’s body.
“Give me a knife, a sharp one.”
“You might want to put some fire to it and disinfect it first,” Kyle said as Jessell tossed one of her daggers down at him.
“Will she live?” Steve asked.
“I don’t really know,” Ridec admitted. “This child seems to be doing some damage with her internal organs, I don’t have any equipment and…”
“Just do what you got to do Ridec,” Jessell cut in.
Kyle gripped the dagger and ran a burning candle against it while Ridec stared at the flame in amazement. Ridec reached up his hand and touched it and drew it away quickly.
“Are you stupid or something?” Kent demanded.
“It’s hot,” Ridec muttered taking the knife from Kyle’s hand.
“Duh…it’s fire.” Kent was staring at him as if he was a man from outer space.
“Of course,” Ridec grunted. This wasn’t the time to worry about what Mark or any of the others thought about him, he had an operation to perform and all he had to perform it with was a knife.
“That fire thing I think it can be used to heat some water,” Ridec instructed.
“You talk like you don’t know what fire is,” Kent pointed out.
‘Be careful Ridec,’ Jessell whispered into Ridec’s mind. ‘Humans have been using fire for thousands of years, they won’t understand you not having any knowledge of it.’
“I’m going to need something to suture her after the op.”
What Jessell was saying to him was true, there would be many things in this world that weren’t in his, he needed to act as if he knew them. Living on the land was going to be a lot more difficult than he had first imagined.
“There’s an old needle and thread somewhere here…” Kyle muttered dubiously.
“Try to clean it up and run it through the fire thing. Darn it this is the worst hatchet job…” Ridec stopped in the middle of his sentence. This was a far from perfect situation but the way the child was moving in Kayla’s womb Ridec knew she didn’t have much chance of surviving unless they could get it out.
“What can I do?” Steve was leaning over Kayla looking anxious.
“Help with the water.”
He didn’t have any time to waste, he had to make the cut now if there was going to be any hope of saving Kayla.
“You sure about this?” Jake asked.
Ridec didn’t answer he needed all of his concentration. The key would be to make the smallest possible incision that he could to get the child through, the bigger the wound the more likely problems with excess bleeding and infection would be.
“Wow.” Kyle muttered under his breath. “You made that look so easy.”
Ridec didn’t take the time out to acknowledge the older man’s compliment, time was of the essence.
He put his hand gently into the wound and gripped the child, for the level of movement he was seeing he was amazed at how small it seemed.
“Water.” Steve hurried into the room carrying a small bowl with water.
“Keep the area clean.”
“Here’s the needle, I did the best I could with it,” Kyle explained.
“No…” Ridec stopped and pulled his hand out of the wound. “Something scratched me…”
“Get back!” Jessell had screamed the instruction but she didn’t wait for him to obey it she dove on top of him and rolled taking Ridec with her.
“What…?” Ridec’s confused mind was still trying to fathom what was going on when he heard a loud screech and a small body crawled out of the wound he had created. “Oh my gosh, what is it?”
It stared over at him for a moment its lower lip pulled down and revealing short jagged teeth, its entire body was a sickly light orange color, it was covered in blood and its eyes glowed a light pink. It slithered across the ground slowly seeming to get stronger with every move it made.
“Kill it!” Jessell ordered but everyone was just staring at the creature dumb founded.
“Get off of me,” Jessell ordered rolling Ridec to the floor and jumping to her feet. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Jessell intended to kill the baby.
“Don’t hurt him,” Steve screamed but Jessell was already jumping towards the creature.
“Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!” Jake screamed as the baby launched itself through the air and latched onto his neck.
Jessell had grabbed her second dagger from its sash and was racing towards the creature.
“Kayla’s bleeding out,” Ridec yelled finally coming to his senses and scampering across the room to where Kayla was laying. “Press here.”
“My baby,” Steve muttered.
“Forget the baby and press here or she’s going to die!” Ridec screamed.
In the background he could here Jake drop to the ground, there was a growl and then the sound of items falling. The baby creature was stronger and faster than the zombies he had seen outside.
“Get me the needle!” Ridec was shouting instructions to who would listen and that wasn’t a lot of people, everyone’s attention seemed to be focused on the baby. “Hurry or she won’t live.”
“It’s gone upstairs,” Kent sounded breathless and Ridec could only assume he had joined Jessell in the fight against the baby.
“Jake’s bleeding out, that baby really took a good bite out of him,” Kyle said hurrying over to where Jake was laying on the floor. “I’m going to need you out here Ridec.”
“Just a few seconds,” Ridec muttered putting the last suture in. Kayla was barely conscious but he had managed to do the impossible – save her life. “It’s still pretty touch and go…”
“Thanks,” Steve cut in before he could finish his sentence.
“I’ll go check on your dad.”
The key to helping Jake was to try to stop the bleeding, he could see easily that the wound was infected but surely that shouldn’t be a problem, didn’t they say that most of the people were already infected? That meant they had some kind of immunity to the infection, hopefully that would be enough to stop Jake from turning.
“How is he?” It was Kyle coming to kneel down beside Jake.
“I managed to stop the bleeding but the bite mark looks really infected,” Ridec confessed.
“Is there a door we can lock to keep that thing upstairs?” Jessell demanded.
“Yeah.” It was Tim that responded and Ridec could hear the sound of footsteps racing up the staircase.
“Why lock it up? We should just kill it,” Kent opined.
“We don’t have time for that, we have two people downstairs that could turn any minute and I don’t need Ridec down there by himself to deal with that,” Jessell responded.
“You treat him like he’s your kid or something…” Their voices faded away before Ridec could hear Jessell’s response.
“Stay focused on Jake, son,” Kyle coaxed.
“I’ll need to stitch him too,” Ridec muttered patting around on the floor for the needle he had dropped.
“It’s…” Pete started to say.
“Kayla…?” Steve cut in softly. “I’m so sorry…are you okay?”
She didn’t answer and within seconds she was throwing herself at Steve and ripping a patch of skin off the top of his head.
“She’s turned, she’s turned, she’s turned!” Ridec didn’t seem to be able to stop himself from repeating the phrase. He had been so sure that Kayla would have been alright, what could have happened in the few seconds he had left her to cause her to turn so suddenly?
“Aaaaaaahhhhhh!” Pete was screaming and racing towards the door but someone grabbed him and Ridec heard a girl’s voice say.
“You can’t go out there; you’ll let all of them in and get us all killed.”
“Watch out kid!” It was Kyle screaming at Ridec as Kayla dropped the body of Steve to the ground and turned towards a paralyzed Ridec. He couldn’t fathom what was going on, everything had been so peaceful when they arrived and in a matter of a few hours all of that had changed.
“Kid!” Kyle screamed again and this time he launched himself at Kayla and ran his blade roughly across her neck, her head slipped to the floor and bounced awkwardly.
“I…” Ridec inhaled a deep breath and tried to bring his racing heart under control. It seemed as if each day in this place just got worse. He could feel bile rising in the back of his throat as he stared down at the decapitated head and then over at Steve and Jake squirming on the floor.
“You have to stop them from bleeding, if they die they’ll come back like Kayla did,” Kyle explained but something in the pit of Ridec’s stomach was turning over and sending messages to his head to run, to go home, and to never see this place again.
“I…I don’t feel well…” He managed to get out just before he leaned over and felt what little he had in his stomach coming through his mouth.
“They’re already dead.” It was Kent that made the comment at the same time he plunged his knife into the back of Steve’s head and Steve’s body went limp immediately.
“Who the hell gave you the right to kill that boy?” Kyle demanded angrily.
“I’m Resistance.” Was all Kent said before plunging his knife in the back of Jake’s head.
“They would have killed us, we already have the baby creature to contend with, we don’t need to add these two to the problem,” Linda put in.
“It wasn’t your call to make,” Kyle pointed out.
“As I said, we’re Resistance, it’s always our call.”
“We need to get out of this place Ridec,” Jessell was grabbing Ridec’s hand as she spoke and pulled him to his feet.
“You can’t leave here, those things are still at the door.” It was the girl that had stopped Pete from leaving that spoke.
Jessell paused momentarily and stared across at her.
“Who the hell are you?”
Ridec spared a quick glance at the short, brown haired, pixie faced teenager that looked as if she didn’t have a proper bath in weeks.
“That’s Rea,” Kyle filled in. “And she’s right. This place is swarming with zombies right now, if you go out there you’ll not only get yourself killed but you’ll let them in and get all of us killed as well.”
Jessell seemed to hesitate for a moment, Ridec tried reading her mind but she was blocking her thoughts from him. Why was she doing that?
“I want to go home,” Ridec whispered weakly.
“I know you do,” Jessell answered quietly. “Me too.”