"I need to cut through the abdomen wall, then the uterus." Perspiration trickled down Cristine's forehead and neck. Despite the shade, the warmth festering was unbearable. The stench of the fly infested infected didn't help either, but Cristine tried to ignore it and clenched her dominant hand around the knife, tip pointing along the washed out and wrinkled skin. The dark of her eyes focused on the bare stomach with a vivid concentration. Taking a few deep breaths in short intervals, the steel of her Bowie knife stilled completely.
A steady hand.
The sharp tip split the skin two. Cristine ignored the dark, clotted liquid that seeped through the incision. Blinking quickly, she did her best to ignore the smell, girding her focus. One wrong move and she'd cut through arteries and that would be the end of Kathy's life. Her mind emptied and thoughts calmed. Cristine didn't even feel the heat around her anymore, her audience didn't exist during the procedure. With the abdomen opened, Cristine's made another side-to-side incision through the location of the uterus. A sharp exhale later, the protective membrane where a conceived baby would be located ruptured. The moment the sack spilled, Cristine couldn't take the smell anymore and sat back on her hunches.
From her side, Alicia mirrored Cristine's actions and muffled her nose with the back of her hand, face green and pale. But she flicked her in the direction of the ruptured membrane where the uterus was located. Closely inspecting it, Alicia reflexively glanced at the half a dozen corpses from the corners of her eyes. The procedure on then 'failed' and meant the patient would be dead from excessive blood loss. "Next comes stitching the uterus and stomach." Alicia handed Cristine a thread and needle and watched the gloved hands start to push the needle through the wrinkly skin to fasten everything back together.
"It looks alright?" The confused voice of Hailey stated before looking at Alicia for clarification. "I mean that's it right?"
"She applied the theory correctly, yes." Alicia nodded in agreement with Hailey's observation. However, the traces of concern on her face didn't convince the youngest Gerrard sister this meant. Giving her friend a look, Alicia wiped the top of her sweaty head with her upper arm. "It's still a corpse Hailey. Cutting through it now is easy since the uterus is empty. Also, the procedure is risky given that the first time Kathy got a C-section it was because there were complications."
"Like?" Hailey inquired for clarification.
"Like her needing a blood transfusion," Cristine's muffled voice from under the face mask sounded slightly scratchy and both Alicia and Hailey looked at the finished stitching work. It was a neat, clean line. Pushing herself to sit up straight, Cristine undid the bloody dark brown gloves from her hands and pulled her mask from the bottom of her face. "Kathy's being monitored and she has a history of high blood pressure, which means she's even more susceptible to have a difficult time delivering the baby."
"We also need a place that's sterile. Chances of an infection are so much higher now, especially now that we're outside." Alicia pointed out.
The severe expressions of her sister and friend jolted something within Hailey. Biting her lip, she found it in her to see the positivity in all this. "We can't focus on that now. Everything's still good for now and we don't know for sure if that'll even happen. But that-" she pointed at the stitches and smiled at Cristine, cheeks rosy. "Let's celebrate the fact that you did an awesome job with it. And you have us, right?"
Alicia's pouty lips twitched and after thinking it through she bobbed her head up and down, a tiny smile too filled her face. "You're right."
"Of course I am." Hailey puffed her chest out with pride before squealing when Cristine pinched her cheek out of nowhere.
"You're losing that baby fat Hailey." Cristine said with slight disappointment in her voice. The angry flaring of her sister's nose and complaints actually washed the insecurities away.
"You're such a loser Cris," Hailey batted the same hands away when they reached for the pulsing flesh of her reddened cheeks again.
"You love this loser." Cristine teased.
"Ugh, whatever you've convinced yourself."
-
After finishing the last check ups around the camp, the three returned to the infirmary. Once there, they- especially Hailey was surprised to see Mike present. Cristine watched her baby sister stiffen and even Alicia frowned. It wasn't a secret that the Trimbols, especially Mike and Vernon, had been the loudest ones telling people to leave or die at the hands of the Nation. With that division, Mike wasn't talking to Hailey, maybe out of shame or just because he didn't know how to face her.
"Uh, hey, uhm-" Mike began in an uncomfortable tune and stared at his girlfriend who had a poker face that was so similar to the indifferent masks Cristine put up.
"You need something Mike?" Cristine crossed her arms underneath her chest and tilted her head, brows cocked and just disappointment rolling from her body. Mike wiped his hand on the front of his pants, riffle resting on his back and even with him looking like the militant man clad in his militia uniform and all, his presence in front of the three women, he felt like a douchebag. Blue eyes flicker in Hailey's direction and the sadness on her face tightened his gut. "I wanted to talk with Hailey, if you're fine with that?" He sucked up his guilt and shame was surprised to hear his voice come out so clear and strong.
Alicia and Cristine looked at Hailey, who visibly tensed. Mike wouldn't even look at her and their last conversation ended into an argument. They both said some pretty nasty and hurtful things to the other. Hailey wanted to be the first one to apologize back then, but Mike didn't even want to talk to her, so to see him come back now showed that he did care somewhere. Her face scrunched together with difficulty, but she didn't want to outright deny a possibility they could perhaps work this out. Gulping, Hailey then wrung her hands together. It was only after the supportive glance from Cristine that she found her voice.
"Yeah, sure... let's go outside."
"You think they'll make up?" Alicia was busy making some new emergency kits and occasionally looked outside where Hailey and Mike were talking under the shade of an open tent. She met Hailey at bible study and the two got along pretty well. Hailey was so easy to talk with and unlike Gretchen seemed to handle her own shit a lot easier even if she didn't have the same experience as her outside. Also, Hailey figured out quite rather quickly her and Jake were hooking up and that sealed the deal of a friendship. Alicia felt like being in high-school talking about the things she did with Hailey and didn't dislike it that much as she thought.
Cristine was busy rummaging through the storage box and fished out the rough looking cover of a note book. Alicia's question made her pause before following the direction in which her sister conversed with her boyfriend. Cristine's expression was callous and unimpressed with the display. "Hailey is a big girl. I hope she'll do what's right for her. If it means her and Mike breaking up; I'll be here to comfort her. If it isn't; that's her choice and she'll have to deal with that." Cristine walked over to the small table Alicia sat at, took out a pen and flipped open a fresh page to start writing. Her brains worked overtime during the times she wasn't occupied with treatments, check-ups and training, and wrote a medical journal. A few important books they had were, unfortunately, burned when the Brown's died. Whenever Cristine could take some time out of her schedule she wrote a comprehensive handbook that wasn't exactly the standard first-aid book. Accidents were riskier now and without the technology of before the journal was geared to inform the people with no experience.
Alicia didn't miss the slight resentment and jab in Cristine's statements and stopped to watch her immersed in her writing. "Every couple has their issues and you make a relationship as weird and as complicated as you want." Alicia pulled up her shoulders in a slight shrug. "But it just feels nice to have someone you can hold and talk to... other than family."
"So that's why you chose Jake," Cristine said.
Cristine's statement caught Alicia completely off-guard she was left speechless for a minute. But the miniscule movement near the corner of Cristine's mouth and the deep dimple brought down her nerves. She didn't expect Cristine one to be so bold and direct. With a slight shake of the head and roll of her eyes, the dark blonde palmed the back of her flushed neck. "I like Jake." There was no need to lie, Alicia honestly liked him, even if her intentions were also a bit for the sake of her family. "He's a nice guy and- honestly, I first thought you and him had something going on."
Cristine choked on her spit, eyes wide and mouth agape from the spoken words. A sharp sound then shook her whole body and this was the first time in long while Cristine laughed merrily at something so hilariously incorrect. Pressing a hand on her coiling stomach, the young doctor ended up wiping the tears from her face. Even Alicia started to feel bad for Jake and the way his friend cackled at the idea of the two of them ever being an item. "I'm sorry-" Cristine waved a hand, muffled laughs coming out in intervals. "It's not like Jake's not my type or anything, but he's like a brother to me. The idea of me and him is a really bad joke. You should tell him that if the two of you are arguing and he's being stubborn. Even a boy-next-door sweetheart like Jake would love to have his ego stroked by his girlfriend."
"We're not boyfriend and girlfriend. We haven't established anything like that, which I don't mind." The sense of normalcy when talking about relationships softened the mood and Alicia felt at ease to talk about it. The confusion of this new world made her feel insecure and it felt as if she didn't have a purpose or something to believe in. This new job as a nurse and being with Jake stabilized those thoughts and feelings. Alicia found it easier to adapt right now and she had some sort of hope again. Despite them having to hide and wait for the brewing war to end.
"A hookup, huh? Either way, I'm happy Jake has someone around him too. He usually only thinks about others and ignores his own well being. He's good like that."
"Soooo," Alicia rolled the word down her tongue and crossed her arms over the other and leaned forward with an expectant gaze that asked where Cristine's fling. To which, the later shook her head with a teasing smile.
"The last person I was with was my ex. And that was before. I honestly don't mind. Y'know, surviving from the dead doesn't give you that much free time to really think about it."
"So I'm correct to assume you and Blake are good friends too?" The nonchalant chuckle of Cristine's eyes wasn't as strong as Alicia thought it would be and Alicia pried, "not even as a hookup?"
"You're correct to assume that. Also, never hookup with friends. Too many complications and it'll ruin the friendship."
"What'll ruin the friendship?" Waltzing back in, Hailey heard the last part of Cristine's sentence and looked at the two with wonder.
"Nothing." Cristine squinted her eyes to search for any signs that Hailey was about to cry or looked elated. There was none of it on her expression, so Cristine asked, "how'd it go?"
"We broke up." Hailey shrugged. The news clearly surprising the two and Cristine in particular who kept looking at her as if she was walking around with a second head. "We don't think this is the time to be distracted. Not with a war at our door and the possibility of death. We want to spare ourselves and the other those grievances."
"Are you okay?" Alicia carefully asked, brows stretching and eyes showing the kind of concern her family had for her. Instead of be influenced by it like she usually was by bursting out in tears, she was both soothed and strengthened by it. Volunteering to help around the infirmary, seeing Cristine in action with the people and her and Alicia sometimes talking about how outside was, Hailey felt spoiled and needed a wakeup call really. That sense of normalcy would never return again, no matter how much she wanted to. How much her mother and father tried to smother her and protect her from the wild. She didn't want to die unprepared and naïve. Didn't want to be a burden, so the first thing to do was think of her and how she could pull her weight and protect herself and her family.
"I'm fine. I made that decision for me."
A cute chapter. Hope this cleared up the relationships and platonic and non-platonic ones too. But ya'll are free to ship whoever you want in this story ;). I know which direction I'm taking it. Love to read your thoughts.