Gifted

Ch. 1 He's Ours

"Here's another," the nurse holding Aiden said handing him over to another woman also garbed in a hazmat suit. What was different about this woman was that she, like Aiden, had strikingly bright blue eyes.

"Thank you," she said, putting Aiden into a rolling crib next to a tan skinned baby also with the unique eye color. The woman then rolled them and herself into the car of a sleek metal train. She sat down on an uncomfortable bench seat, but not before stripping her hazmat suit off, leaving her sweater and jeans on. "You two are so precious," she said an octave higher than her normal speaking voice, adoringly at the two infants. She ran her fingers through her long blonde hair. Both the newborns had undergone a lot in their short lives already, and the struggle had not even begun.

The trio headed North at high speeds to the one place that the "Cursed" were allowed to live. The Republic could stomach the isolation of these rejected people, but could not stand the idea of killing them at birth. After all, this was much the same as they stomached sending Native American's to reservations back when The United States was still fairly new. Early on as the mutation became prevalent, the "Chairman," leader of the Republic of North America decreed that it was a curse. Alfred Franklin, one of the first well-known citizens to have the curse, along with countless others were quarantined until it could be determined what to do with them. The state of Maine was cleared out, "decent" citizens had two months to gather their belongings and move to any surrounding states or to other countries. Then the "cursed" were loaded on to bullet trains and shipped to Maine. Unlike the former citizens, these new residents were only allowed to gather what they could carry.

Now the "cursed" had been living in Maine for fifty years. They had established a leader, unbeknownst to the Chairman. Teachers simply became teachers here. Firefighters did the same. Police officers, accountants, phone operators, mail couriers, and select businessmen all did the same. The Chairman was more picky about politicians and international businessmen, though, after all, he had to have people he knew he could trust to maintain a positive outlook to the general public. A congressman from Maine had to be trusted to relay a message to the rest of the Republic that life was good where they were now, even that they were happier living amongst themselves.

For the most part life did resume as normal, or as normal as you can get with regulated food sources and military policeman parading through the streets every two weeks to make sure they remained compliant.

These parades, controlled resources, and one other thing remained hidden from the public.

**

"Here he is," Amy, who had traveled with the infants up to Maine, said as she handed Aiden to his new parents. Cole and Marisa LeFlour had been called down to the station after putting in a request a month ago for a baby, along with another couple. "It's a baby boy. Earlier today the bio's named him Aiden." Most of the citizens of Maine preferred not to call the biological parents "parents," as they found the term parent implied that they cared for the baby. Instead, they simply referred to them as bios. In addition, most citizens preferred to adopt a baby that came to Maine unwanted, rather than have a baby of their own. Really, there were two motives for this. First, there really were plenty of newborns that came to Maine unwanted by their bios. Secondly, however, if they had their own baby, there was a chance that it would not inherit the right gene and would be taken in one of the military parades back to the Republic.

"He's perfect, don't you think, honey?" Marisa looked over at her husband Cole, tall and toned with bright, honey colored hair.

"He's ours," he responded simply, looking down amazed at his new son.