Labor and Delivery

by Jamie Davis

  Brent nodded and helped the elven doctor stand up. She moved ahead of Brent back through the small cluster of trees towards the hill Marci described.

  “How are you fixed for ammo, Marci?” Kurt asked.

  “I’m good. We only had that one running fight. Hopefully, we can take these out without using up too much of what we have left. Thank God Jonesey equipped us with these flechette rifles. I can’t imagine hauling around all the extra rounds of ammo we’d need if we had regular rifles and sidearms.”

  Kurt slid the magazine back into place after checking it again and said, “Let’s hope we get the chance to thank her when we get back. We can both take her out for a beer.”

  “Does Jonesey even go out. I’ve never seen her outside of that warehouse of hers,” Marci said laughing.

  “There’s no time like the present to find out. We’ll definitely have to check when we get back.”

  The zombies had gotten closer, in fact, they were now close enough for Kurt to see that this group seemed to be comprised of a mixed group of several families, including children who’d been infected. He sighed. Fighting this group off was going to suck. Even though he knew they were already dead, he didn’t like shooting anything that used to be a human child. This was the stuff of nightmares.

  Kurt used hand signals to tell Marci where they were going and the two of them backed away from the edge of the meadow and headed back through the trees towards the hill. He followed Marci since she knew the way.

  When they exited the far side of the woods, they spotted Brent and the doctor climbing the hillside. They’d almost made it to the summit.

  Marci spotted the second group of zombies first and brought her gun up to her shoulder. “Shit, look out!”

  Marci fired off several bursts over the heads of their two companions on the hillside at the small group of zombies who’d just come over the crest of the hill.

  Kurt watched the first three zombies cut down by Marci’s expert fire. More zombies came up over the edge behind them, though.

  They spotted Doctor Nboto and Brent down the hill and charged down at them. Kurt raised his rifle, firing off shots of his own, desperate to hold off the new attack without hitting their teammates with a stray round.

  It was going to be close.

  The Doc and Brent turned around and started running back down the hill. The doctor fell behind and Brent wasn’t doing anything to help her. The zombies to the rear were gaining on her and Kurt and Marci were hard-pressed to pick off the ones closing in on her.

  This wasn’t going to work and Kurt cursed at their rotten luck. Soon the first group of undead were going to come out of the trees to their rear. Kurt stopped firing and took off at a dead run up the slope, trying desperately to reach the pregnant elf before the zombies overwhelmed her.

  Behind him Marci continued laying down fire, picking off zombie after zombie as they crested the top of the hill. Neither of them had any idea how many were back there, so all she could do was to keep whittling their numbers down.

  Doctor Nboto scrambled down the hill as quickly as she could without falling. The zombies were almost on her but she kept running, never looking back.

  “Brent, turn around and shoot some of them,” Kurt called out.

  Either Brent didn’t hear him or he was too frightened to comply. The corporate vice president kept running, his pistol still in its holster at his waist. He’d dropped his rifle somewhere along the way.

  Kurt continued charging uphill. He cried out, “No,” as one of the zombies reached out and grabbed the fleeing doctor from behind, pulling her back to the ground.

  Kurt raised his rifle and snapped off a shot taking the zombie in the head.

  The zombie let go of her and fell back, but the two others behind it jumped on top of the screaming doctor, their heads bent to bite at her exposed flesh.

  Kurt couldn’t risk another shot. All he could do was charge the remaining five meters up the hill while he picked off the other zombies close by. They seemed to be thinning out, thank God.

  Another zombie had almost reached the other two crouched over the screaming doctor.

  Marci picked him off at the last instant with a headshot as Kurt finally arrived at the doctor’s side. Dropping his rifle to dangle by its sling, Kurt reached down and drew his pistol.

  Running up behind the two zombies bent over the doctor, he pressed the muzzle against the head of the first one and squeezed the trigger. As its brains splattered out the other side of its head, he switched targets and did the same to the other one before it could even react to his presence.

  They both fell over revealing the injured doctor beneath them. There were several open wounds and bite marks on her arms and shoulders. Kurt reached down and pulled her back to her feet. He looked up the hill and saw there were no more zombies coming over the top.

  He knew the other group in the woods would come out behind them at any instant. They had to make it up that hill and hope the second group was destroyed by Marci’s fire from below.

  Helping the doctor with one hand and holding his pistol in the other, Kurt started back up the hill from where they were.

  “Marci, come on. Get up here. We’ve still got to get to the top of the hill before the others get here.”

  “Right behind you, K.C.”

  Kurt heard a whimper and cry behind him and saw Brent crouched down next to a small boulder. “Get up, Brent. We’re going to need your help up here. Get over here and help me get the Doc up the hill.”

  Brent nodded and came over to take Doctor Nboto’s other hand. He didn’t meet Kurt’s gaze and Kurt didn’t have time to ask him what the hell he was thinking as he ran away without helping the doctor. There’d be time for that, later.

  They reached the top of the hill and Kurt looked around ready to shoot anything that moved. Luckily the other group of zombies had been small and all of them had been killed. That was good because at that moment the larger band came running out of the woods behind them.

  Kurt helped Doctor Nboto down to a seated position and pointed to her. “Brent, get her medical kit out of her pack and help her bandage herself up. I’ve got to try to give Marci a fighting chance to get up here in one piece.”

  Kurt spun around, holstered his pistol, and lifted his rifle back to his shoulder. He started laying a steady stream of hypersonic darts down the hill at the approaching group of zombies.

  Marci was now halfway up the hill and crawled on her hands and knees to stay below the buzzing hail of fire Kurt sent downhill over her head.

  She angled to one side to try to get out of the line of fire. Then she stood up and sprinted the rest of the way to the top. Kurt was just barely able to keep them off her tail. She reached the top of the hill and dropped something behind her to roll back down into a group of the infected close by.

  It took a moment for Kurt to realize what it was. Then the grenade went off, blowing pieces of zombie in all directions.

  “Nice move,” Kurt called out.

  “Yeah, they were getting a little too close for comfort.”

  Marci spun around and joined Kurt at the crest of the hill. They stood side-by-side as they fired together at the approaching horde of zombies.

  There were only about twenty of them left, but they were already about halfway up the hill.

  Kurt reached up to his tactical harness and pulled the pin on one of his grenades before tossing it down the hill at a cluster of the infected charging up at him.

  The resulting explosion took out five more zombies.

  Beside him, Marci thinned out the ones coming up her side of the hill as well, firing her flechette darts downhill with expert precision. He couldn’t help but notice the smile on her face.

  Kurt raised his rifle again, and together, he and Marci finished off the last of them with just a few meters to spare.

  Kurt checked to make sure all the zombies were down and staying there, then turned to Marci. “Check around the hill make sure no one else i
s coming up behind us. I’m going to check on the doctor.”

  Kurt turned to where Brent was still bandaging up some of the doctor's wounds. Several of them seemed more severe than he’d first thought.

  That wasn’t what worried him the most, though. It was her ragged breathing and the way she clutched at her pregnant stomach.

  He crouched down. “Doc, what’s wrong?”

  “The stress put me into labor,” she said between gasps. “I think this baby is coming whether we like it or not. I just hope I’m strong enough to survive long enough to see her born.”

  “You know it’s a girl?” Kurt asked.

  The doc nodded in reply.

  “That’s nice, let’s talk about what you need us to do while we get you ready to have this baby.”

  “I think I’m as ready as I’m going to be, Kurt. Seriously, you need to help me along and hurry. I’m feeling very weak all of a sudden.”

  Kurt knew she was immune from the infection that might’ve been passed on by the infected zombies. That’d been proven in her previous adventure into this world. However, the wounds she had were pretty severe. That, coupled with the stress of childbirth, might be enough to kill her. He couldn’t let that happen but he didn’t know what else to do.

  He knelt down next to the doctor and helped prop her up while she slid out of her khaki pants. He unfolded a Mylar emergency blanket and slid it beneath her to help shield the baby from the ground when it was born.

  Kurt knew a little bit about childbirth from his medical training in the military. He was one of the special ops team members designated as a field medic and they’d learned all sorts of random things like childbirth and basic dentistry.

  Kurt tried to remember the steps and things he learned all those years ago, back when he was sure he’d never have to use it.

  “Doc, you’re going to have to fill me in on what to expect here. I’ve had some training, but it was a long time ago.”

  “Don’t worry, Kurt, childbirth happens mostly on its own. Just help me stay focused and keep me pushing until the baby’s born.”

  “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be right here by your side.”

  Marci had returned from checking the hillside at this point and stood there with her mouth hanging open.

  “Are you serious? She’s having the baby now?”

  “Babies come when babies come, Marci,” Kurt said. “Come on down here and help me. I know a little about what to do and the doctor can fill us in on the rest. But having an extra pair of hands is going to help and I’m not sure Brent is up to the task.”

  Kurt did little to hide his anger at the corporate rep, but now was not the time to chew him out. There’d be plenty of time for that later.

  Marci crouched down next to the doctor and together they waited to help deliver a baby.

  Chapter 12

  They remained on that hill the rest of the day and into the early evening hours as the doctor’s labor progressed. Brent sat off to one side and stared off into the distance, ignoring the rest of the team. That was fine with Kurt. The man had proven what kind of individual he was.

  Marci and Kurt continued to help the doctor with her contractions, but she was getting weaker and weaker. He knew she’d lost a lot of blood and there was no way for them to replenish it here in the field. He just hoped she held on to have this baby. He was rewarded when she finally started active labor and began pushing just after the sun went down. The moon had come up bright and full, which was good since they didn’t want to light a fire up on top of this hill. It would just draw more of the infected to their location.

  With Marci on one side and Kurt on the other, they propped up the Doc to help her bear down and push. It took nearly an hour, but finally, she pushed the baby out headfirst.

  The speed of the delivery surprised Kurt once the head came through the birth canal. He caught the baby and laid it down on the mylar sheet on the ground.

  It was a girl. He wrapped the thin, reflective plastic around the baby to help hold in its body heat. Keeping the baby close to mama while the cord was still attached, Marci retrieved a pair of bandage scissors from the doctor’s medical kit. She sterilized them with some alcohol and handed them to Kurt. With a quick motion, he cut the cord. The cord was tougher than he’d anticipated it to be, but he did it. He clamped down on the end of the cord with a plastic clip Marci handed to him.

  “Good thing we had all this stuff.”

  Doctor Nboto gave a weak chuckle. “I packed an emergency maternity kit just in case I went into labor on this journey. I questioned whether it was a good idea at the time. I didn’t have much space in my pack. It looks like I made the right decision.”

  “You definitely did, Doc. Marci, get her something to drink and let me see if I can keep her from bleeding too much down here.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Kurt. The baby is the most important person here, now. I’ve lost too much blood and I’m likely to lose more before the bleeding stops from the birth. I have a feeling this is it for me. I need facilities we don’t have here.”

  “Nonsense, don’t talk that way. We’re going to get you through this Doc. You just need to hold on.”

  “You don’t understand. The baby is the mission. She always was.”

  “What do you mean?” Kurt asked, confused by the statement.

  “The antidote, Kurt, is not kept in a vial, it’s within her blood, just as it was with me. Get her to the settler’s lab alive and they can take a sample and replicate the vaccine needed to combat the virus. Protect her above all else. That is the most important thing.”

  “We’ll keep her alive, Doc, but you’re going to be there, too. Now save your strength while I pack in some of these dressings here to stop your bleeding.”

  Kurt figured the doctor was heeding his instructions to rest when she didn’t answer him. He was busy handling the baby and trying to stem the flow of blood. There was so much blood, more than was usual in his estimation.

  In addition to that, he knew it was essential to bring the baby close to the mother to nurse. He finished packing some more sterile dressings to staunch the bleeding and brought the baby girl up to the doctor to feed. That was when he noticed for the first time she wasn’t breathing

  “Shit, no! Marci, get over here. She’s not breathing.”

  “What do I do?” Marci asked as she rushed over.

  “I don’t know, start CPR on her. Maybe we can revive her.”

  Marci began doing chest compressions and rescue breaths. She continued for several minutes.

  Kurt checked the doc when Marci took a brief break. There was no change in the Doc’s condition. She remained unresponsive and probably dead. Kurt held the baby the whole time staring down as Marci continued her futile effort’s to revive the woman.

  “It’s no use. Can’t you see she’s dead?” Brent said.

  Kurt spun around and growled at Brent. “She wouldn’t be dead if you had shown a little backbone. All you had to do was turn around and help fight off those things until I could get there.”

  “She’s the one who is immune to their bite. There was no way I was turning around and getting anywhere near those things.”

  “You’re nothing but a damned coward,” Kurt snarled. He advanced on the cowering man.

  At least I’m a live coward.”

  “You disgust me. Just shut up and sit there. I’ll decide what to do with you later.”

  Kurt turned his back on Brent. Marci had stopped doing compressions and knelt next to the doctor’s body, sobbing. She’d exhausted herself trying to revive the woman.

  Shifting the baby to cradle her in one arm, Kurt reached down and touched Marci on the shoulder. “It’s all right, Marci. You can stop. There’s nothing we could’ve done.”

  “There’s got to be something we can try?”

  Kurt shook his head. “Maybe we can clean her up a little bit and get her dressed again. That will help her have some dignity at least.”

  Mar
ci looked up at him but didn’t say anything.

  Kurt stared out over the moonlit landscape below him. He smiled. “We can bury her up here on this hill. It’s got a great view and even with everything going on in this crazy world it’s not a bad place to have your final rest.”

  Kurt knew he was trying to sugar-coat things, but he had to take control of the situation or things were going to go downhill fast. He didn’t want to let on to Marci that he was freaking out a little bit on the inside.

  He’d worried a few times about what might happen if the doctor had her baby while they were trekking across this world. He’d always envisioned that the Doc would still be alive to help deal with things, though. He’d never once considered her dying and leaving them with a baby to care for by themselves.

  He didn’t know anything about children, and he knew Marci had limited experience at best. Kurt stole a glance over his shoulder at Brent. He shook his head at the thought going through his head.

  “Brent, do you know anything about kids?”

  “I have a few of my own. Why?”

  “Come over here and take the baby. Make yourself useful for a change.”

  “We don’t have any way to take care of that baby here. She is going to die, just like her mother.”

  Kurt lost control for the first time in a long while. Holding the baby in the crook of his arm, he stood over Brent with his fist raised as the man cowered beneath him.

  Kurt gathered control and slowed his breathing until he’d regained a semblance of calm again. “This baby is not going to die, you bastard. That’s because you’re going to do everything in your power to make sure that doesn’t happen. Now hold the baby while I help Marci bury her mother.”

  Brent reached up and took the child wrapped in the Mylar blanket. Kurt could tell by the way he held the baby that his instincts had been correct. Brent knew how to take care of kids.

  They could use that experience to their advantage. Kurt turned and went back over to the doctor’s body. He crouched down and helped Marci clean up some of the blood that had splattered up on the doctor’s face during the zombie attack. When they were finished, she looked almost peaceful.