The Evolution of Man. Chapter 5: Escape
‘Come on Bratley.’ Bren and Bradley ran along the side of the building, keeping out of sight. The empty cars all stood, still running at the entrance. Bren snuck a peek at the automatic doors. No one in the waiting room inside.
‘Get the grenades ready Brat.’ He fumbled in his backpack. ‘I think four ought to do it?’
Bradley smiled. ‘Four? You got to be kidding me. Give me that. He grabbed the pack from Bren. Didn’t Jenk say kill everyone?’ He grinned. At least seven. Two for the eunuch.’
‘Whatever.’ Bren peered around the corner. ‘Let’s go.’
Together they ran toward the entrance.
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The cut was perfect Anita reflected. She made a shallow curved incision following the natural outline of the young woman’s belly. Textbook. The theater nurse’s fingers hooked into the wound, pulling the layers of tissue apart. Together they cut deeper to reveal the amniotic sac.
Wordlessly, the nurse gave the doctor a saddle shaped retractor. Anita fixed it on one side of the incision, holding it open. Two careful cuts later, the child’s pale head showed. Carefully Anita felt around the child’s head freeing it so she could position the forceps.
In moments, the child was out. Quickly she aspirated fluid from his mouth and nostrils, clearing the passages.
Thin red fluid welled from the cut and began to pool along the sides of the young woman’s abdomen.
Anita lifted the red smeared little body pulling the twisted blue-white umbilicus toward her. Two quick clamps later, she severed the child from the mother. The assistant held out a green hospital cloth and received the child. ‘Quickly now, we need to get the transceiver in.’ Anita said, her voice muffled beneath her face mask.
The nurse nodded. ‘What about the mother?’ She asked.
‘Leave her there.’
‘But she…’
‘She served her purpose, we don’t need her anymore.’
The nurse holding the baby hesitated. She could not bear to leave the woman on the table, unconscious and bleeding.
‘Nurse!’ Anita’s voice was venomous.
Wide eyed, the nurse met the doctor’s gaze.
‘Get the child in the incubator. Hook him up to the monitors and get the IV set up. MOVE!’
The frightened nurse nodded and headed towards the incubator at the opposite corner of the room. Anita shook the remnants of fluid and tissue from her gloved hands. Things were progressing perfectly. The director would be pleased.
Anita noticed the tall nurse with the curly brown hair move toward the unconscious woman on the operating table. The nurse smiled at the doctor. It was then Anita observed the tall woman didn’t wear a face mask. Her lips moved as if she was praying.
The doctor’s eyes narrowed.
‘You there, what’s your name?’ The tall woman smiled broadly. Her lips kept moving.
Anita took a step forward. ‘I said leave her there, didn’t you hear me?’
‘I heard you doctor.’ The nurse’s voice was husky, smoky smooth. ‘I don’t think I will do what you say though.’
Anita took another step forward.
And suddenly the nurse wasn’t smiling anymore.
With a growing horror, the doctor realized the nurse’s lips were still moving, communicating. Someone was listening.
And then several things happened simultaneously.
The double doors to the operating theater burst open. A huge bald man pushed his way into the room.
Zim.
Anita startled for long moment. If Zim was here, the director would not be far. Through the closing doors, the doctor noticed several men in matching dark suits standing quietly. They were all intently focused on Zim.
‘Where’s the child?’ Zim’s voice was deceptively mild. Anita looked toward the incubator. The nurse still held the child, wrapped in hospital linen. ‘Have you chipped him?’
The doctor stared.
‘Doctor, the chip, did you chip the child?’
She shook her head. No.
The first explosion shattered the air into jagged echoing fragments. Anita felt the floor shiver. Glass shattered somewhere behind her.
Softer popping sounds followed. Gunshots.
A second explosion rocked the anteroom. Zim threw himself on the floor. He moved remarkably quickly for a man that size.
A violent bang flung the theater doors open, bending one, half off its hinges. Zim found his feet, backed up against the near wall. He raised his wrist. Anita saw the clear blue glow of the transceiver. The men in the anteroom were mindmelded to him. The would follow his orders.
More gunshots. A loud explosion shook the ceiling tiles from the roof. Dust floated in the air. Anita closed her eyes and hunched down reflexively. The lights flickered, then went out plunging the room into darkness. A woman began screaming. Was she injured? Zim’s voice barked commands into his transceiver.
Inexplicably Anita heard the sound of a gurney moving. Rubber wheels crunched remnants of glass and rubble. ‘Catch you later doctor.’ The voice was husky and silky smooth. The tall nurse.
Somehow she was moving around in the inky darkness.
There was a sudden ripping sound. The far door wrenching off its hinges. Footsteps and rolling crunching sounds followed her as the gurney pushed out of the theater.
Zim’s voice floated out of the pitch black. ‘Nurse, do you have the child?’
Silence, punctuated by gunshots, receding.
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The tall nurse wheeled Ava and the child carefully along the unlit hallway. When the lights went out, she grabbed the opportunity. Thank the maker for low light vision. Even the emergency lighting was out. She couldn’t leave the young woman to die; she draped hospital linen over the open wound. Perhaps Sandman could stitch her back up.
The child...
The nurse holding the child sobbed silently. The infant was mercifully quiet. In seconds she crossed the room. The fat man barked commands into his wrist link but there was no obvious response. Probably the explosions killed the mindmelds. She hoped so, it would be easier to escape. Taking the child was easy. Gently she set him in the crook of his mother’s arm.
The miserable old doctor cowered in the middle of the room. One last taunt. ‘Catch you later doctor.’
Then she was in the hallway.
She listened carefully. Footsteps. Two men heading her way. She eased the gurney against the wall. They would be upon her in moments. She looked around. The exit was too far for her to wheel Ava and the child out without being noticed.
Distraction. She needed a distraction. She scanned deeper into the walls, tracing the electrical system. She found a conduit buried in the drywall. She punched into the plaster and pulled out a section of wiring. Her hand glowed briefly. Sandman insisted she carry a spare power supply. She was glad she did. She completed the fire suppression circuit. In seconds the remaining sprinklers activated. Foam surged from nozzles in the ceiling.
She tilted her head to listen. Sounds of cursing two corridors away. The foam was thick and slippery. One of the men fell.
Grinning, the nurse wheeled her patients out into the bright afternoon sunlight.
