When the Dead (10 page)

Later in
the day, Molly could feel the pressure building; the stress that drove her to
make bad, unhealthy decisions and think slightly evil thoughts. Jill was
napping in the second bedroom. Molly stood in the doorway watching her breathe
slowly.
Dumb bitch,
she thought.
I wouldn’t have run outside with a
baby inside me.
Molly caught herself there. She needed to leave the
apartment before this continued. She knew just where to go and just what to do.

            She
slowly opened her apartment door and checked the hallway for anyone. It was
empty, which was common for that time of day. She walked briskly to the
stairwell that led to the third floor and the common area there, where they
stored all of the food.

            Standing
on the top step she was filled with elation. Stacks of canned and dried goods
stood before her. Food made her happy and happiness was all she wanted to feel
right now. Molly grabbed six cans of pears, some beef jerky, baked beans,
granola bars, and chips and stole away to her old apartment. She had food there
too that she knew she could rely on if the group’s stockpile ran low.

            Once
inside, she sat on the kitchen floor and gorged. It felt so good to be full and
to make choices without anyone else giving their opinion. Jill would wake up
soon and wonder where Molly went. Molly didn’t care. She wanted only to take
care of herself.

            She
sat for ten minutes and then she grabbed a large garbage bag, vomited out all
she’d consumed and then threw the knotted bag in her old bathtub. She cleaned
up and left to return downstairs but she ran into Tom Vaughn in the hall.

            “You’re
back. I thought I scared you away.” Vaughn tried to touch her hair but she
moved to avoid his hand.

            “I’m
not back; I was just leaving.” Molly kept walking but Vaughn caught her arm and
pushed her against the wall.

            “What
were you doing in there?” Vaughn questioned her, his face only an inch from
hers.

            Molly
turned her head away to try to get some breathing room. “I felt sick. I wanted
to be alone.”

            “Hmm.
You don’t look sick. In fact, you look really
healthy
to me.” Vaughn
reached a hand under her shirt. Molly gasped and Vaughn put his other hand over
her mouth to stifle the noise.

            “Molly?”
a woman’s voice called from the stairwell.

            Vaughn
groaned unhappily and released Molly from his grip. He disappeared back to his
apartment before the source of the voice, Isobel, arrived at the top step.

            “There
you are. I went to check on you and Jill but no one answered the door.” Isobel
looked Molly over. “Are you ok?”

            “Yeah.
I’m fine. Let’s go back downstairs.” Molly smoothed out her shirt and followed
Isobel. She didn’t want her savior to see her body trembling.

Vaughn
was fuming. He got what he wanted, especially in this new world. He was so
close to having her and he knew if they hadn’t been interrupted he would be
enjoying her right now.

            He
needed a prostitute; someone he could pay to let him do anything he wanted. He
picked up his phone and tried in vain to reach any of the old numbers he’d been
able to rely on in his times of need. He thought of running to Aurora Avenue, a
popular place for street walkers, but thought better of it. They’d all be dead;
wearing high heels or hooker boots was a quick way to end up a meal for the
undead.

            He
did the only other thing he could do, turn on a dirty movie and take care of
himself.

            “Jill’s
baby will be coming soon. I think I want to volunteer to help,” Moira suddenly
said after a long silence; she had been concentrating on her knitting project,
a hat and booties for the expected newborn.

            “You
bore three. I think that means you have the most experience,” Edward said
between drags on his pipe.

            “We’ll
have to get some supplies together. And I’ll need some help during the labor.”
Moira set her knitting project aside and grabbed a pen and paper to start
planning.

Moira
had made a hasty list and asked the residents to gather before dinner, with
Jill, to plan the home birth.

“Hi everyone,” Moira started. “Welcome Jill to our group, or back to it,
I suppose.”

There were nods in the circle. Isobel waved. Jill smiled warmly but with
a hint of sadness.

“Thank you for trying to warn us. Austin and I should have listened in
the first place and stayed inside.” Jill’s voice grew weak as she spoke the
last sentence, “He would still be here if we had.”

“Looking to the future,” Moira said brightly, “Jill’s baby is due in two
days and I would like to act as midwife, if that is alright with you, Jill?

            Jill
nodded in acceptance. “This is my first child. Half the people in this room
must know more than I do about children, you most of all, Moira.”

            “We’ll
need some extra sets of hands; someone to assist me, someone to care for Jill,
someone to document the birth, maybe another.”

“I want Molly to be there for sure,” said Jill. Molly smiled. She figured
she’d be included since they were sharing an apartment.

Rob raised a hand to offer his help. “I was there when my wife gave birth
to Gabe. I went to those labor classes and know the breathing techniques. I can
help if you don’t mind Jill.”

“That would be great, Rob, thanks,” Jill said as Moira wrote Rob’s name
onto a clipboard she’d brought to the meeting.

“I can come,” Isobel volunteered. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

“Thank you Isobel. I think that should do it,” Moira smiled as she went
over her list a final time.

“Now that we have that sorted out, how are things going with everyone?”
Ben asked.

No one had much to say. Markus smiled. Jeff shrugged. Edward asked Ben if
he liked the novel. It seemed like getting Jill out of danger had helped
everyone to calm down a bit. Leaving her out there must have weighed heavily on
their heads. Still, the world was not right yet and many couldn’t help but have
a sense of foreboding.

“Things might not always be smooth like today. We need to stay prepared
and alert. If there is an end to this, we have a very real chance of making it
in this building,” Ben reminded everyone. “If we are smart about our food
consumption and the barricade holds, It‘s possible that our lives could return
to normal.”

Molly’s heart started pounding in her chest. She wasn’t smart about her
food consumption.
Did Ben know?
She wondered as she scanned his face but
he didn’t look her way. Markus, who was seated next to Ben, was looking
straight at her though.

“One day at a time.” Moira shook her head a bit and took a drink of water
to swallow the medicine in her hand.

Everyone
at Willow Brook settled in during the next couple of days. The pounding died
down; the undead having realized they’d have to work extra hard for the meal
inside the building. It was late in the evening when Jill’s fatherless child
decided to come into the world.

            “Her
water broke!” Molly was running down the hallway knocking on doors and yelling.
“The baby is coming!”

            Moira
gathered the home birthing kit that she had created. It was an impressive
spread that reflected her creativity and resourcefulness during the end times.
She brought it to 204 and put it all on the couch.

The kit included:

-  Petroleum jelly

-  Gloves for sanitation

-  Iodine for sanitation

-  Towels of assorted shapes and colors for cleanup

-  Sterile gauze pads for cleanup

-  Turkey baster to clear the baby’s nose and mouth

-  A chip bag clip for clamping the umbilical cord

-  Sanitized scissors for cutting the cord

-  A Black and Decker tape measure to measure the
baby

-  A small shallow pan of warm water to clean the
baby

-  Blankets and a hat to wrap the baby

-  A hastily made birth certificate

-  A photograph of Austin, so the baby would see her
father

The
group looked prepared but they didn’t feel it. A firm mattress had been moved
to the living room and on it laid Jill in a thin nightgown. She was breathing
rapidly and sweating. Isobel had come to lend an extra hand. Rob was there to
help with breathing technique and to give Jill a hand to squeeze the hell out
of. He felt slightly ashamed to watch and wondered how Jill really felt to be
surrounded by mere acquaintances for this momentous occasion.

“Where’s Austin? He said he’d be here!” Jill screamed.

“She’s delirious, don’t mind her,” Moira said with kindness in her voice.
“How long ago did you say her water broke, Molly?” Moira asked as she examined
Jill.

“I think it happened this morning but she didn’t tell me; like she was
unwilling to accept that it was happening without Austin here. I ran to get you
when I noticed her having serious contractions,” Molly whispered.

“She’s been in labor for hours. She’s fully dilated. This baby is ready
to come out. We’re going to push now, ok Jill?” Moira asked between her legs.

Jill looked around the room for her husband’s face and when she didn’t
see it she shook her head. “No, not yet. Can’t we wait a little longer?”

“Come on Jill,” Molly coaxed her gently, “the baby has to come out now.”
Molly wiped the sweat from Jill’s brow and tucked her hair behind her ears.
“You can do this.”

“Ok. Ok. I’m gonna push,” Jill replied.

“Here we go,” Isobel said, looking to Moira.

It took an hour of pushing and Jill nearly fainted twice from the pain.
They had no painkillers to give her that would do any good.

Around eleven that night baby Annabella Cooper finally emerged. Jill had
survived but needed some stitches and a lot of cleanup, which Moira tended to.
Rob still held Jill’s hand.

Isobel and Molly cleaned off the baby. It was emotional for both of the
women who had only seen death recently; new life brought a shaky hope. They
laughed together when they saw that Moira’s baby booties fit perfectly but that
the hat was slightly too large for the infant’s head. Wrapped in a blanket and
crying, the baby was brought to Jill.

“Our little girl. She’s so perfect. Austin would love her so much.” Jill
touched the baby’s nose and looked into her eyes. “Daddy would love you so
much.”

Isobel wrote on the birth certificate, little more than a piece of
printer paper with some ruler lines on it, the date and time of Annabella’s
birth.

Moira
stayed in 204 for a few hours to make sure that everything was alright with
both mother and baby. Occasionally Jill would cry out for her husband but then
Molly would be at her side to comfort her. The undead outside were pounding
furiously on the walls of the building. Jill’s screaming and potentially the
smell of the birth and life of the baby had encouraged them.

Ben and Isobel checked the stairwell barricade. They stared at it for nearly
fifteen minutes, moving home décor into various positions for the tightest and
most unmovable fit. Satisfied and spooked after hearing a window shatter in
downstairs, they left the stairwell and went to bed.

“How is
the little baby today?” Isobel asked Molly as they crossed paths in hallway a
few days later. The child was in Molly’s arms and Jill wasn’t around.

“Annabella is great. She’s a quiet baby so far. Jill isn’t so good
though.”

“I noticed. What’s up? Is it post-partum depression?” Isobel knew it was
common and likely, given the circumstances the child was born into.

 “It’s more than that. Jill won’t stop looking out the window. She’s trying
to find Austin in the crowd. Every time she thinks she sees him, she runs over,
grabs the baby, takes it out on the deck and yells for him. It hasn’t been him
yet, thank God.”

“Wow. She’s in major denial.”

“I think she’s gone off the deep end. She keeps telling me that she wants
Austin and the baby to meet.”

“Nothing’s going to change him back,” Isobel sighed.

“Tell that to her. She’s convinced otherwise. I’ve been trying to take
Annabella out of the apartment and away from Jill as often as I can.”