I smiled as she entered the room. “Jasmine, just the woman I wanted to see.”
“What’s up, Commando Mom?” she laughed.
“Ha, ha, very funny. I’m as big as a bus; there is no commando Mom here at the moment.”
“So, what’s new, fun, and exciting? Chris said you wanted to see me. Something about him being the bothersome, overbearing dad, blah, blah, blah. I tuned out when he started to whine. I hate it when people whine.”
“You are too funny. You know that, Jaz? And, no worries, I tune out everyone who whines.”
“Good to know. Do you mind giving me a heads up before you start tuning me out, though? A nod, a yawn, any indicator I’ve lost your interest. I’ve got stuff to do,” she laughed again.
“See, this is why I needed you. You make me laugh, and I don’t worry about saying the wrong thing around you. You have thick skin and a twisted sense of humor, just like I do.”
“Well, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment. So, what do you want to talk about?”
“Oh, I don’t know, anything to keep my mind off of the fact that I could be sitting here for another few weeks before these babies come. Oh, and not labor. I want to talk about anything other than labor. That topic scares the shit out of me.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard your nightmares have gotten pretty bad lately. Well, let’s not talk about that either. How about a joke?”
I threw my head back in relief, smiling. I knew Jasmine was the one person I could count on to take my mind off of everything. “Yes, please. Well, as long as it’s a funny joke and not some stupid knock, knock crap.”
“Come on, you insult me with the insinuation that I would come to the table with a knock, knock joke. You know me better than that. Here goes. So, a hooker finishes up with her John, and she asks him if he just got out of prison. He says, yeah, how’d you know? Is it because I wanted you in the ass? She replies, kind of, but mostly because after you finished, you bent over and yelled, now your turn!”
I didn’t know what I was expecting, but I was not expecting that kind of joke. Jasmine made me laugh so hard. I hadn’t laughed like that in a very long time. It gave me the exaggerated giggles where you can’t breathe, and you snort when you actually do get to take a breath. I laughed at her joke, and Jasmine laughed at my snorting.
“All right, this is the last one from me, though, and then it’s your turn, Abby.”
“Okay, go ahead, but I don’t think I’ll ever top you. That last joke was hysterical. I’m still crying,” I said, wiping my eyes.
“So, a little girl goes with her dad to the barbershop. She stands next to the barber’s chair, eating a snack cake while her father is getting his hair trimmed. The barber says to the little girl, sweetie; you’re going to get hair on your Twinkie. The little girl responds, yeah, and I am going to get big boobies too!”
Again, I laughed so hard I thought I peed myself. Then I got a sharp pain in my lower abdomen and back. The shooting pain made me realize it wasn’t urine. My water had broken.
“Ugh, Jaz... I think I’m going into labor.”
Jasmine continued to laugh, rocking back and forth, even slapping her knee. “That’s funny, Abby, but not as funny as my jokes.”
I put my hands down beside my hips on the bed bracing for the oncoming contractions, and I managed to grunt through my gritted teeth, “I’m not kidding. My water just broke.”
One look at my face twisted in labor pains, and she sobered up fairly quickly.
“Oh, shit. Stay here. I’m going to get the Doc and Chris!” she yelled as she ran out of the room.
“Okay, it’s not like I’m going anywhere,” I said to no one.
Chapter 3
Abbigail Norrington
Chris was the first to rush into the room. He practically slid from the door to my bedside.
Already breathing heavily from running, he huffed, “Abby, are you okay? Are you sure the babies are coming?”
I looked up at him wanting to answer but had to wait for the pressure on my back to release before I could get any words out. He stared at me with apprehension in his eyes while he waited for my response.
I breathed out deeply, and slowly. “Yes. The babies are most certainly coming. My water broke, and I just started with contractions, so you may want to get out a watch or something to time them.”
“Okay, yeah. Good idea.” Chris murmured as he jumped up, searching his drawers frantically.
I laughed at him, “Chris, you know you’re wearing a perfectly good watch, right?”
Chris stopped and looked at his wrist, bewildered. “Yeah, sorry. I guess I lost my head there for a second. It’s eleven thirty-four. Tell me when your next contraction starts.”
Chris knelt on the floor next to the bed as he held my hand tightly. He was smiling from ear to ear, and the sight filled me with happiness. The fact that these babies were not his honestly didn’t matter to him. All he wanted was for me to be safe, and these babies to be healthy.
My happy thoughts were interrupted by Doc Bakers, Troy, and Jasmine rushing into the room one after the other.
Troy stood in the doorway, staring at me like he was surprised this was actually happening. Doc Bakers was the first to chime in. “Have the contractions started yet, Abby?”
“Yes, the last one stopped at about eleven thirty-four.”
“Good, that was about five minutes ago. I’d like to wait here for the next one to start, and as soon as it’s over, I want to get you moved into the surgical suite. I’ve had everything we could possibly need set up there. I don’t want you to worry about anything, but I want you to know that I have planned for every possible situation I can think of.”
“Thanks, Doc. That’s reassuring because I may seem calm, but I’m kind of freaking out.” I finished talking just as another contraction started.
I dug my fingers into the sides of the bed, curling up my body, trying to relieve the pain as much as possible. I remembered this type of pain from my previous labors. It also reminded me of the burning, searing agony of actually passing an infant through my narrow pelvis. I was scared to find out how painful it was going to be to not only have to feel that once but also a second time immediately after the first birth. I focused on one spot on the ceiling trying to think about anything other than the current lighting hot throbbing of my back and abdomen.
Chris pulled my hand from its death grip on the mattress and squeezed it softly. “You’ve got this, Abby. You’re the strongest woman I know. Just breath through it, and it’ll be over soon.”
He kissed the top of my fingers as I started to relax and slowly let my breath out. The pain had subsided for the moment.
Doc hopped to my side, “Good, the contractions are about fifteen minutes apart, so let’s get you on the move to the surgical suite. Troy, write down eleven forty-nine, the start of her last contraction. We need to be timing the beginning of one contraction to the beginning of the next and Troy; you’re the official note-taker.”
Troy pulled his pad from his pocket and his pencil from its usual spot between his glasses and his temple. “Yes, ma’am.”
Chris helped me from the bed, and the shift in my position caused the small leak my laughing fit had created to now become a full gush as my water completely broke and dripped quickly between my legs. I expected it to happen eventually, but I couldn’t help but feel embarrassed in front of these people I came to know as family.
I quickly threw embarrassment from my brain, reminding myself of what it was like giving birth in the past. Modesty goes out the window as soon as the contractions really take hold. In my previous experiences, there was always someone new coming into the room, lifting the bedsheets, and sticking their hand where it usually wouldn’t belong. Then telling me I wasn’t quite there yet, and to hold tight, that someone would be in later to recheck me.
Thankfully the only person I was expecting to check how dilated I was, was Doc Bakers. Hopefully, Troy would stay towards my head and not
be witness to the act per se. Troy saw everything from strictly a scientific point of view, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to be looking at my lady parts stretched beyond human expectations.
Jasmine made it very clear earlier that she was all for helping, acting as a nurse, but she’d rather not witness the actual act of childbirth. Something about not wanting to have that visual in her head, preventing her from ever wanting to have kids herself someday. I was on board with that too. The smaller number of people I had to live with knowing what my privates looked like, the better.
The contractions came quicker and stronger than I remembered. Jasmine hooked up the ultrasound machine at the request of Doc Bakers. She wanted to check the position of the babies, so she knew what to expect.
Unfortunately, what they saw didn’t bode well for the babies or me. It seemed like we were going to be in for a rough labor because the first baby was head down in the birth canal, but the second baby was still very high and in the breech position.
I was hoping that since the first baby was correctly situated in the birth canal that once I gave birth to the first, the second would have to move into the birth canal as well instead of staying breech.
Even as all of this was racing through my brain, the first question I had for Doc Bakers was, “Are they girls?”
Doc looked at me with confusion. “I thought you said you didn’t want to know?”
“I didn’t before, but now that it’s happening, I want to know. I need to know just in case something happens to me. I would hate to die, not knowing their genders,” I responded, now crying.
“You are not going to die, Abby. No one here will let that happen, least of all me. And you are having two girls. Now, no more stupid questions like that. Do you hear me, young lady?” Doc replied, clearly frustrated with me.
Chris looked at me, and all I could see in his eyes was fear.
I did that. Chris was excited about the babies coming earlier, and I had to go and ruin it with a stupid statement about possibly dying. I knew it was possible; women died all the time during childbirth. Sure, the rate of death for women had drastically reduced with modern medicine, but thanks to Dr. Brigantine and her Perdition Virus, humanity was virtually thrown back into the stone ages. Sure, we had electricity, but there were not enough trained, ethical medical professionals to go around anymore. I had one war tested medic, a lab-rat virologist, and a cop turned nurse with only three months of on the job training to help me give birth to twins. How could I not be worried at the prospect of dying?
The next contraction pulled me out of my thoughts and made me focus again on one single spot on the ceiling. If I could train my eyes in one central location, I could try and block out the pain. I thought it was working when suddenly Doc started rushing around, pulling my attention to her. She had put a heart rate monitor on my belly, and apparently, one of the heart rates was slowing drastically.
I couldn’t help, so I chose to close my eyes and just listen to the rhythmic thump sounds from the heart monitor. One was racing, and the other was noticeably slower. I wanted nothing more than to will the heart rate to speed back up and make it so, but the last thing I remembered before everything going black was only hearing one heartbeat instead of two.
Chapter 4
Christopher Bryant
One minute Abby was breathing through the pain; I could see her focusing on managing it as much as possible, and the next she was out cold. One of the two heart beats had all but stopped, and Doc Bakers started barking out orders to Troy and Jaz about sedation, securing airways and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t understand. The one thing I did get out of the commotion was that things were going downhill and fast. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just got out of their way. I felt like a coward, but I couldn’t watch them cut open the woman I loved.
I needed to get more help, but we didn’t have anyone at the cabin that had any medical training other than the three people already in the room. I had to do something, so I ran upstairs to the kitchen where everyone was waiting patiently to hear any news about Abby and the birth.
I burst through the door, and the smiling faces changed to fear immediately after seeing the anguish and anxiety in my eyes.
“Does anyone have any medical experience at all? Do any of you know anyone that might be able to help? Abby is in serious trouble. I think they’re intubating her and one of the babies’ hearts stopped. I guess they are going to do a C-section since Abby passed out, but I do know they need more help. Anyone?” I pleaded with our friends as they stared blankly back at me.
Merv pushed through the small crowd in the kitchen, “I know somewhere we can get help.”
“Really? Where? How far is it? We need help now.”
“Come with me,” Merv replied, grabbing my arm and pulling me out the back door.
“What the hell Merv? What’s outside that’s going to help Abby?” I questioned getting frustrated with being drug out of the house away from Abby, who I knew needed me.
“I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea, but I knew this was going to be a possibility when she went into labor. I was hoping it wouldn’t be such an urgent situation, though. I guess that was stupid of me.”
“Get to the God damn point, Merv! Abby is in there, possibly dying. I need to get her help. Now can you do that or not?” I yelled at him.
“Yes, yes, I can.”
“Well, get on with it! How can you help?”
“I might not have been completely truthful with you about where my family and I came from,” Merv said quietly, backing up a little.
“What do you mean?”
Merv put his hands up, gesturing that he was harmless. “My family and I did come from Virginia, but we found a safe place, a community of good people who were helping others like you and your group here are trying to do.”
“Where are they, and do they have doctors that can help? Right now, I don’t care about you lying to us, I will later, but right now, I only care about getting help for Abby and those babies because they need it desperately,” I growled at him.
“I understand. We were feeling you guys out, making sure you were good people before we told you about the others.”
“Merv, so help me God if the next words out of your mouth aren’t that you know where I can find an experienced gynecologist then you better not say them.”
“Okay, well, about twenty miles from here is a compound in the Wawayanda State Park. It’s probably an hour and a half away from here on the quads. That’s if you don’t run into any trouble.”
“And they have a gynecologist there, one that has delivered babies and done C-sections?” I asked now, having hope that I might be able to get additional help for Abby yet.
“Yes, I can go with you and show you the way.”
“Great. Pack light, and I’ll meet you out front in five minutes,” I said, taking off running for the surgical suite.
I rushed in through the double doors, and it was calmer than the pandemonium I had left a few minutes ago. Doc was arranging some nasty looking utensils on a tray next to Abby. Abbigail seemed to be hooked up to every machine in the room with a breathing tube in, and heart rate monitors softly thumping. I could hear two soft swishing heartbeats, and the sound filled me with joy.
“What’s going on? I hear both heartbeats, right? Both babies are okay?”
Doc looked up from the tray with concern in her eyes, “Yes. For now, they are. I think Abby wasn’t getting enough oxygen, and one of the babies’ heart rates dropped drastically. Now that we have her on oxygen, both babies seem to be okay for now. I don’t know a hundred percent why she passed out, but we have her airway secured, and her vitals are normal.”
“Merv knows of an experienced gynecologist who can help you, but he’s about an hour away there and back. Do you think Abby and the girls can hold on that long?”
“I’m going to have to do a C-section right away, Chris. We’re preparing for it already. I’ve done these before, so I a
ssure you I can handle it.”
“I’m not saying you can’t handle it, Doc; I just want to make sure that Abby and the girls have the best possible shot. If there are any complications, which there already has been, aren’t you going to need more people here who know what they’re doing? Two assistants aren’t going to cut it. So, I’m going to go get this doctor, and as many people who know what they’re doing. And that’s final!” I yelled louder than I meant to.
Troy and Jaz stopped what they were doing and just stared at me. Doc looked furious, and I almost regretted yelling at her, but then I thought about it. No, I will not feel guilty for wanting to offer as much help as possible. Abby’s life was on the line. So were the babies, and I wasn’t going to risk their lives for anything. We have all come too far in this shit storm of a world to have it all end because I didn’t try my damnedest to get help.
Doc took a deep breath and shook her head at me. “Go ahead, Chris. Go and get this doctor of yours. I’ll wait as long as I can, but I’m going to warn you, I’ll probably have these babies out safely and Abby resting comfortably by the time you get back, and your efforts would have all been for not.”
“I hope you do Doc, but I can’t not try. You know that. Abby means the world to me, and so do those girls.”
Doc walked away, ending our conversation, “Troy, can you get me the antiseptic solution so I can be ready to prep Abby, please?”
I didn’t wait for any further discussion as I knew there was none to be had. I had no time to waste, so I ran to our apartment, grabbed my gear, and I was out front as quickly as my legs would carry me.
Chapter 5
Christopher Bryant
I knew I didn’t have a lot of time. I hoped the Doc would really wait as long as possible to start the surgery on Abby, knowing that I was getting her some much-needed help. Doc wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize Abby or the babies, so I hoped we wouldn’t run into any trouble on the way. The infected can be unpredictable, though.
Z-Strain (Book 3): Fallout Page 2
