Steve turned to face the room. “I need Sandy... The rest of you should go.”
Clarissa sat forward on the table, panic written on her face.
“Don't go,” she said as she took Conner's hand and pulled him back to her.
“Not going anywhere,” Conner told her. He met Steve's eyes momentarily, and then slid past them to Katie. Katie nodded and then all the others left. Almost as soon as they had gone the door opened and Sandy stepped into the room. She came to the table.
“Clara,” she smoothed the hair away from her forehead. “It's okay.” She pushed her gently and she laid back against the table once more. Her eyes fixed on Conner's and held them. “Please,” she said. “Please.”
Conner nodded. “They won't hurt you... Clara? Your friends call you Clara?”
She nodded.
“Clara, they won't hurt you... They have to see. How bad it is for you, how bad it might be for the baby.”
Sandy stepped away from the table and came back a few moments late with a syringe.
“Why?” Clarissa asked, clearly frightened by the syringe.
“Strictly to relax you, nothing else,” Steve told her.
“The baby,” Clarissa said as she struggled to sit up once more.
“The baby will be fine,” Sandy told her as she leaned into her, adding her own weight and pushing her back down to the table.
“Hold still,” Steve told her. “I don't want to chance hurting you... Breaking the needle... Just...” He looked over at Conner who stepped forward and held her arm tightly as Steve lined up a vein in the crook of her arm and sent the needle home. She stopped struggling almost immediately.
Her eyes settled on Conner, focused, blinked, and then slipped shut. Her body relaxed. Conner backed away.
“Listen, I'll be right outside,” Conner said as Sandy began to cut Clarissa's clothes away.
“I wish you wouldn't,” Steve said. “She should be out for the count, but she might not be. I went light... Don't want to harm the fetus.” His hands worked at removing the cut top from her body, but his eyes rose and stopped on Conner. “I will most likely need you,” he finished.
Conner stepped back toward the table, restless, nervous as Sandy continued to cut the clothing away. He slid his hands into his back pockets, rocked once on his heels and let out the breath he had been holding.
Her body was covered in small, black, spidery lines: Corrupted capillaries just under the skin. The infected leg was completely black down around the ankle. Steve examined it carefully with his gloved hands.
“Definitely bitten... A week, maybe ten days... Surprised she has lasted as long as she has.”
Sandy came forward and slipped a set of stirrups into holders at the sides of the table. A moment later and Steve was examining her pelvis. Conner turned slightly away, embarrassed for her, and studied the patterns on the wall. Steve cleared his throat and Conner turned back. Clarissa was draped with a sheet that was folded just under her stomach. Spidery, black lines snaked across and over her distended belly, seeming like some strange feeder-tubes, delivering poison instead of nutrients. He had never seen anything remotely like it, but it was what his mind supplied for an explanation. Something, the babies foot, Conner supposed, moved and the belly pushed outward and then jiggled as the foot moved on.
“She isn't quite there,” Steve said. “A few hours, or it could stop and hold off a day or two... She, however, is not going to make it much longer before she turns... I don't know what her blood has done to the baby, Conner.”
“What do you mean? You're unsure if you can save the baby?” Conner asked.
“I'm unsure if the baby is alive,” Steve said.
“I saw her belly move,” Conner said. The belly moved again as if hearing his declaration.
“I know that,” Steve agreed. “It doesn't mean a damn thing though... Our side of alive... I don't know if the baby has crossed over to the un-dead side.”
“Jesus,” Conner said softly. “What can we do? Have you seen something like this before?”
“I haven't, no... I don't know what it might mean, but are we willing to take the responsibility if it goes really bad? I don't want to, Conner.”
Conner held his hands up. “Sandy, have you seen anything at all close to this?”
“Nothing,” Sandy said. “Heard nothing even remotely like it from people coming in... Well...”
“Well what?” Conner asked.
“A group last week. Not the same... The woman was pregnant and then got bitten. Couldn't move fast enough.”
“Same thing,” Steve said.
“Not the same at all,” Sandy disagreed.
“How so?” Conner asked. “Sounds the same to me too.”
“She was bitten and they killed her the same day... The baby too. They didn't...”
“...Want to take the chance,” Conner finished.
“I told you it wasn't the same,” Sandy said as her own eyes became shiny. A tear slipped over the bottom of one eyelid and ran away down her cheek.
“It's okay, Sandy. I should have realized you were trying to put it delicately... Okay... I can't decide this on my own, I need to talk to the council... Is there a way you can keep her out?”
“I can, but I'm concerned about the baby... Too much of what I have could hurt the baby, too much could even kill her. I don't...”
“I know... I'm not trying to make you responsible for it, Steve. I just need her to be … Controlled, I guess, until I can get the committee together and get a decision.”
“I'll do the best I can do,” Steve said. He shook his head, walked to the cabinet and then came back with a second syringe and a small bottle. He drew some liquid into the syringe, studied it and then tapped the side to settle the contents. He depressed the plunger to clear the air, and then walked back to the table and injected her.
~
The silence held for a few beats in the crowded room. The nine council members were present. Conner, Katie: Amy and Aaron. Chloe, Lilly, Bonny, Bobbie and Jake. Conner had said nothing, waiting for everyone to arrive and settle down. The council had changed so much over the last few weeks that he wasn't entirely comfortable with it, or sure of the different views and opinions it held.
“Okay... So, it's like this. We have a woman, Clarissa, maybe you know her as Clara... Bobbie, I know you know her, and I don't want you to feel bad about this situation... She is infected. Letting it slide could have endangered everyone in the Nation, and that is fast approaching seventeen hundred people... Probably will be in the next few weeks. We still have groups coming in.” He drew a deep breath. “So, for everyone else, this woman was bitten and managed to keep it a secret from Jessie when she was examined.” Conner said.
“How?” Lilly asked.
“Been down that road myself. Steve has no answer, except, he was suspicious too.” Conner said.
“So he caught it?” Amy said.
“No... He elected to let it go too.” Conner said.
“Shit,” Jake spat. “That's a goddamn rule, isn't it? He's supposed to err on the side of caution?”
“He is,” Katie said. “We're going to have to address that too.”
“What about Emmett?” Aaron asked.
“Emmett is useless. Gave me some bullshit about it going on before he got here, therefore it wasn't his problem,” Conner said.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Amy asked.
Conner held his hands up. “Let's not get off track. It will be addressed. I don't know what he was thinking and I want to know... As for Emmett, well, I said it. Useless to us right now. Right now the problem is the woman Clarissa and her baby. The woman... Clarissa won't make it much longer, Steve says... He didn't say how long, anytime really. He thinks the baby may be dead.”
“Then it's easy, isn't it?” Chloe asked. “I don't want to sound hard, but it isn't a decision to be made for her sake, but the Nations sake. She needs to be put down.”
“If the baby is dead the
re is no point,” Amy said. “I'm with Chloe.”
“The baby is moving,” Conner said. “I saw it.”
“So, Steve is, what, lying? Overreacting?” Lilly asked.
“Neither, he thinks the baby might have turned... In her womb. She is covered in black up to her waist and the lines run right into her abdomen. He thinks the baby might be Un-dead.” Conner said. “At the least the poison in her blood has reached the baby... Probably reached the baby,” he amended.
“Jesus,” Bonny whistled. “We both knew her... She was in the water with us... The same water the other day. Bobbie said so, but I dismissed it, I thought it was just a bad leg. Dammit.”
“The water can't hurt you,” Aaron said. He shook his head. “I wish we would hear from Adam. We could know if we have something to fight it with.”
“Maybe we have heard from them,” Amy said.
“What do you mean?” Bobbie asked.
“I mean, we have heard the dead are dying. Dropping out. Something got them... I would like to think it was our guys that got them. Maybe it's over.” Amy said.
Conner raised his hands once more. “We can't get off track. Steve gave her something that could hurt or even kill the baby... Or her. We need to decide on this situation. The OutRunners,” he shrugged. “We don't know, and even if they got it we can't let this situation wait until they're back. We need to decide this now.”
The silence held once more.
“Jesus... We can't chance it. We have to kill her. Can't Steve take the baby and see?” Jake asked.
“I would like to see it go that way too,” Katie said.
“It should be that way,” Amy agreed.
“I don't know that he can... Or even will, do that,” Conner said.
“Then we need to know that before we make our decision... Or we make a provisional decision,” Chloe said. “Save the baby if it is possible... The mother has to be killed, but deliver the baby if he can do it.”
“And if he can't?” Conner asked.
“Then we bite the bullet,” Jake said. “I don't like it, and I don't want that to be the choice we have to make, but this is not our choice alone. It has to be a choice made for the entire community...” He looked uncomfortable as he finished.
“Well put, Jake,” Katie said. She looked at Conner and then let her eyes travel over the others too. “Is that how we all feel?”
The replies were murmured, but they all agreed.
Conner rose and walked to the door. They were in a small supply room just off the main tunnel. He walked alone back to the clinic.
~
Steve did not accept the council's decision.
“I don't think you understand the circumstances, Steve,” Conner reasoned.
“I understand perfectly well. You don't understand my position. I am a doctor. I didn't come here to kill anyone.” Steve told him. “Listen, man, I'm a doctor. Doctors save lives, they don't take them.”
“She's dead already,” Sandy said. She seemed incredulous.
“The dead don't breath... She's breathing. I can see it clearly when they're dead. She isn't. It's not a gray area, it's black and white... What's so wrong with letting her live whatever she has left?” Steve asked.
“Because the baby may be able to be saved, man,” Conner pleaded. “Listen...” He drew a deep breath. He reached down to his side and drew his gun. He flicked the safety off and pressed the muzzle against Clarissa's forehead: When he spoke again it was a harsh whisper. “I will do what I have to do to make sure that this community is protected. I don't know if she can feel a bullet passing through her brain or not. Maybe, maybe not. I know you can do it with a shot of something... Stop her heart... Seems more … More humane to me, but whether it's my way or your way it has got to happen... I'm sorry, Steve. It has too.”
“Don't make me do it,” Steve said as he backed further away from the exam table.
“I'm not going to make you do anything at all... Sandy?” He waited until Sandy's teary eyes found his own. “Can you? If you can't, can you show me what to do?”
“I can do it,” Sandy said. She turned away, walked to the medicine cabinet and came back with a new syringe and a small bottle. “How much,” she asked Steve.
Steve took the bottle and syringe from her, filled it and then handed the syringe back to her.
“Look,” he shoved his shirtsleeves up, pulled the straps that were built into the table and cinched them across Clarissa's chest. He strapped her arms to the side with padded wrist pieces. “I will begin to take the baby. That could stop the baby's heart. I'm going to open her up... Take the baby... That will probably kill her. If she wakes, inject her, if she doesn't, wait until I have the baby clear... Until I've cut the umbilical cord, okay?” He looked hard at Sandy.
“Yes,” Sandy said as she moved into position.
“What do you want me to do?” Conner asked.
“I want you to be right,” Steve said. “I just want you to be right.” He took two steps back, reached into the cabinet, and his hand came out with a scalpel. Before Conner could say anything else he was back at the table, cutting through Clarissa's abdomen to free the baby.
The first lines of black blood began to run in rivulets across Clarissa's stomach and patter to the floor: Before there were more than a half dozen small splatters things went crazy.
Clarissa reared up from the table, teeth gnashing and lunged at Steve. Sandy jumped back from the table and the syringe in her hand went flying, rolling across the floor. Conner froze for the briefest of moments. Time seemed to slow, nearly stop. He felt his heart slam hard into his rib-cage.
The wound in her stomach gaped open, Steve's hands were plunged deep within her, up to his wrists. The blood flowing in a near river, black in the stark florescent lighting, splashing and flooding down her sides to the concrete floor.
Her hands came up, grasped Steve's own and pulled them free. The baby came part way with his hands, half in, half out of her stomach, and it was all that Conner needed to see to know that Steve had been right. The baby was dead, long dead.
The baby snarled and began to bite at Steve's gloved hands, the latex shredding as the baby fastened its mouth around one finger and seemed to pull itself forward as Steve lunged backwards, trying to shake the baby free as he did. He stumbled backwards, the baby coming with him.
Conner looked around for Sandy and found her on the floor, hand closing around the syringe. Time jumped forward into its proper frame once more and the sounds of the small room came with it. Screams, panicked breathing, the sounds of the struggle, the mother growling, the baby snarling. Steve screamed and Conner pulled the gun from his side, brushed the safety off and stepped toward the table.
The door behind him slammed open and Aaron pushed past him, a gun in his hand. A second later the room exploded in light and sound. Clarissa flew off the table as if by magic, her head dissolving even as she slammed into the wall. Others rushed into the room, Conner barely registered it as he turned and fired into the baby where Steve held it still suspended above him. The baby flew across the short distant and slammed into the opposite wall, still snarling. Katie stepped into his range of vision and fired. Silence descended on the clinic.
Seattle
April 27th
Lake Union Settlement
Jessie
They were stopped on the outskirts of Seattle, in a breakdown lane that had long ago been cleared of vehicles. The city loomed in the distance. Even from this far out, fires glowed here and there, and they could see the outlines of distant buildings.
Jessie had Bob park the SUV behind a small concrete block building that had one served as a car dealers office, among several other cars that were parked there. In the daylight it would not pass muster. All the cars that were parked there were covered in thick layers of dust, but in the evening it couldn't be told from the others. Jessie got out and began to look over the nearby vehicles.
Jessie stopped in front of a rusted and dented old truc
k. "Our means of transportation when we go down into the Lake Union settlement," she said, as she opened one paint peeled door with a screech. “Bob?”
Bob crossed to the driver side, and opened the door with another rusty squeal. He found the hood latch and popped it. A set of jumper cables from their own vehicle got the old truck running. It started with a cloud of blue smoke, idled raggedly, and then smoothed out after running a short time.
“I can't guarantee how long it will run, Jessie” Bob said as he climbed behind the wheel.
“Doesn't have to run long,” Jessie told him. “Long enough to get us down in there and back. If we take our SUV down there it is going to cause problems... We will look like outsiders to them... To Sarah.”
Jessie began slowly to recognize various landmarks, despite the dark, as they passed them. Here was Renton Municipal Airport, or at least what had been Renton Municipal Airport. The remnants of a corner convenience store, that Jessie knew she had been in before: Searching for maps on their way up to Snoqualmie.
The streets were clear for the main part, huge mounds of silent and rusting cars and trucks, even a few city buses, pushed and then somehow stacked one on the other at the sides of the roadway: In places it made the roadway appear as though it were a strange tunnel of some sort. They drove slowly onward passing several bonfires lit in parking lots beside the road, everywhere it seemed. People gathered around them, some just standing, some talking quietly in the darkness. Bob pulled off to the side of the road when they reached Lake Union, and eased the truck down close to the water, following a dirt track that looked fairly well used through what had been a small park.
There seemed to be a higher concentration of people here, than Jessie had seen along the entire route. Hundreds, perhaps even a few thousand people, stood around huge fires that lit the small park, or sat in small groups near the waters edge. Despite the cheerfulness the fires lent to the night, there seemed to be no real happiness at all. The grounds were covered with hastily constructed dwellings, some no more than a few boards nailed together, others built somewhat more solidly. All however, had one thing in common, they had been there a while, Jessie thought, as she stared through the dusty windshield. She could remember a few of them, and many more had been built in her absence.
Earth's Survivors Box Set [Books 1-7] Page 213
