Keep Following On

Part 3

Sarah was carelessly tossed onto the surgery table, her eyes sagging with exhaustion. This had been the fifth round of prodding, poking, and plucking this week, and Sarah had gone without food, water, or rest the entire time. Her baby had been getting scanned for mutations or infections, his five-week-old body growing more restless and drained as they continued.

One of the doctors got out a small blade, moving to the older woman and bending over her body. Slowly, they began cutting from the inside of her shoulder and down to her wrists in one clean cut. Moving to the other side of her, the doctor repeated the cut on her other arm.

Blood began pooling out of the incisions, and Sarah sobbed quietly. The doctor never paid attention to her pain, moving down to her stomach and slicing from the inside of her breasts and down to her belly button.

Moving to his pile of notes, he began to write, speaking out loud. "No infected blood. No pus or spores. The patient doesn't react in anger, no retaliation or groans." Putting his pen down, he moved to the pile of cotton pads. He slowly cleaned up the blood, wrapping up the cuts with fabric. When he finished, he peeled his gloves off and left the room.

    Paige had begged the other doctors to stop or to be more humane with their tests, but they never listened to the young woman. The torture continued for another ten days before Sarah flatlined. The doctors used a defibrillator to bring her back, but she wouldn't make it for another hour.

    Now, she lay in a cold bed, her breaths shallow and tiresome. Paige sat beside her, feeling hopeless for the mother. Paige's husband, Ben, a guard, stood beside her, holding Vian.

"Paige," Sarah whispered, taking the doctor's hand and squeezing as hard as her weak body could let her. Paige bent over to hear her better, "Don't let my baby have the same fate as me. Protect him, please..." She begged.

Tearing up, Paige nodded and watched as Sarah flatlined once again.

One of the doctors walked in, mentioning to Ben and another guard to carry the body outside. Turning to the doctor, Paige stood up and puffed her chest out, "Doctor," She started, "Let's wait to continue the tests. This child is our only hope, and if we kill him, we have no other chance of making a vaccine."

The man thought for a second, "It's not a bad idea...." He muttered, moving his hand to his chin, "I'll talk to the other doctors about it. But just know, they'll likely have you parent the kid until we deem him old enough." Paige nodded, looking at her husband and Vian.