CYOA Page 116
Sep. 13th, 2013 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumy12"It sounds like... a woman being tortured," you think out loud. "Not just plain old infected. I think we should see if we can help."
"I had a feelin' you'd say that."
"Is that a bad thing?" you scoff, annoyed at the knowing look on his face.
"Sometimes." He might not even be joking. "Come on, then. Stay alert."
It's clear the screams are coming from inside the camper that has a horse parked outside it -- right outside it. The horse is saddled, but isn't tied or tethered to anything, so you assume he feels some kind of loyalty to whoever's making -- or causing? -- those awful noises.
You and Joel have dismounted your own horses, guns drawn, ready for anything... you still only hear the woman, though. No other voices, no sounds of violence. The door is ajar...
"Stay here," says Joel, ascending the steps and pulling the door open slowly.
So predictable. You follow him; you know he just wants to go in first.
"Oh -- oh no -- please--" The woman must have seen Joel.
"We ain't here to hurt you," says Joel, although he doesn't holster the Shorty yet.
"Can you -- help me?"
"Are you alone?" he asks, though you're pretty sure he's taken in the entirety of the little camper already and knows the answer to that. (...Okay, maybe not the bathroom.)
"Yes-- please help me -- I can't do this!"
Joel just stands there, and he's totally blocking your view. You try to look around him, but it's impossible with all his gear on and all. "Joel, what is it?! What's going on?" It sounds like the woman is on the floor, and she's clearly in distress... so why the fuck is he just standing there?
He finally moves aside so you can come all the way in and see for yourself. "Oh, fuck," you gasp. It's a pregnant woman! She looks terrible. Red-faced, dull-eyed, sweaty... clumps of dark hair matted to her cheeks and forehead. She's wearing what appears to be a nightgown, and clutching her swollen belly, trembling all over... And there's probably only one thing that would cause her to scream in pain like that...
You look to Joel for direction -- and are shocked to find him paler than you've ever seen him (and you've seen this man at death's door!). You shove your gun back in its holster. "Joel -- snap out of it! What do we do?"
"Uh..."
"You've done this before, remember?" you remind him patiently.
"...Not really."
"Weren't you there when Sarah was born?"
"I... not really," he says again.
"What?" You know that Sarah was his world; you just assumed he would've been there. What else could have been going on at the time that was more important?! "Why weren't you there?" You try not to sound judgmental, but...
"I was there. Or... I tried to be."
"What do you mean?"
"Look, the doctors... I have no idea what they did. I didn't, uh..."
The woman screams again, and you nearly jump out of your skin. Joel just stands there, and he's starting to freak you out a little; you're used to seeing him take charge and tell you exactly what to do, even if it's a situation he's not overly familiar with. He's always so level-headed and confident! He has a glazed look on his face, and... it kind of looks like he might pass out.
"You better sit down," you tell him when the scream dissolves to a whimper. "You don't look too good." He lets you push him into the little dinette booth thing. "Are you gonna be okay? Cuz I should prob'ly be trying to help this poor woman who's like... giving birth right now." You don't mean to sound like a bitch, but fuck!
Not that he even notices; he doesn't answer you. Just when you're about to turn your attention to the woman on the floor, you see his eyes rolling back in his head--
"Joel!" You catch him before he topples out of the booth, and push him back in so that he slumps in the other direction. You check his breathing, his pulse... he seems okay -- clearly, he just fainted.
Now you think you understand what he was trying to tell you about being there yet not being there when Sarah was born. What a wuss!
You look back at the woman, who's staring at you with big brown eyes... and a pleading look that terrifies you. Like you're her fucking salvation.
"Okay, Joel, you just take a little nap and I'll handle this," you whisper to him, feeling a pang of pity for him now. You are so going to give him shit for this later. He could've at least offered to stand guard outside or something -- he didn't have to fucking FAINT.
You take a deep breath and put on a brave face before turning your attention back to the woman on the floor. "Okay! Um... hi. I'm Ellie. What's your name?"
"Avery," she replies hoarsely.
"Avery. That's a pretty name. Okay, Avery, well... I've never done this before. But I'm a quick learner. Have you done this before?"
She shakes her head. "I'm gonna die," she whimpers tearfully.
"No! No you're not!" you tell her firmly. "I'm going to help you!"
"It's been... a long time already," she says, moaning softly.
You're not sure what she means by that, but you don't ask for clarification. "Do you wanna move to a bed, or..." You can see what looks like a bunk bed -- but only the top bunk?
"I tried, but... I dunno..."
"I think there might be a fold-out bed or something over there..."
She shakes her head. "I can't move. I really... this is fine. At least I'm... not in the dirt?"
You feel a flash of annoyance at Joel; he could have figured out the bed situation, picked her up and got her settled... you shake it off. Focus. "Right. Okay. You're gonna have to help me out here, Avery... tell me what you need me to do. I can get you blankets... oh! Water -- you must be thirsty!" You note her dry, cracked lips and wonder when she last had something to drink.
"Please," she whispers. "Thank you... thank you..."
You see her smile for the first time, and it warms your heart -- but then her face contorts in pain again and she screams. You can't even imagine what it must feel like... like taking a really painful dump? But worse?
You hurry past Joel (who is still either out cold, or pretending to be) to fetch the blankets, water, and whatever else you can think of that you might need. Like your towel. Rags. A thick stick she can bite on to get through the screaming-pain times.
She's calm again (well, relatively) when you return. "Thanks for helping me, Ellie," she says after sipping some water; you had expected her to guzzle it, but it's like... she doesn't have energy to spare for that. "Thanks for... not leaving."
"Pfff. Not gonna leave you like this." You did think about it -- only for a second, though. If I wasn't here, would Joel quit being such a pansy-ass and man up? ...And you refuse to worry about him right now.
"It's not s'posed to... be like this," she moans.
You shift her back and forth enough to get one blanket underneath her (leaving the other one rolled up, to serve as a pillow and prop her head up a little). The floor's a little damp beneath her in a spot that makes you think she must have peed her pants -- er, her underpants... and it soaked through the gown?... but what can you do? Tell her "sorry but I don't wanna get pee on this blanket"? There's probably going to be... various fluids when the baby's born, right? And it's just a fucking blanket; you can wash it. You realize you haven't responded to her remark. "Um, sorry, but I think it is, actually."
"The contractions, yeah... but it hurts... all the time... something's wrong," she cries.
You don't know how to respond to that... so you revert to bullshit. "You're gonna be fine. We're here now, and... we're going to a hospital, you know. We'll take you with us and get you and the baby checked out and everything's going to be fine. Okay?"
She nods, so she's at least pretending to believe you. You hope she truly believes it -- and that it's actually true!
"Oh, I brought this for you." You show her the stick. "It's my pain stick. You bite on it, see, and it helps you... get past it. It's perfect cuz it has a little bit of give, so it doesn't hurt to sink your teeth into it, but it's strong, so you can't break-- oh! Here!" She looks like she's about to scream again so you bring it up to her mouth.
It also serves to somewhat muffle the screaming, which, selfishly, makes this slightly more bearable for you, but more importantly, won't attract any infected in the area. Though you suppose there's more likely to be hunters out here than infected. You idly wonder if all of them would faint like Joel did. And you wonder if you should bring the rest of your stuff inside, but decide you can just keep an eye on the horses from here.
"Am I supposed to be trying to push now?" Avery asks you when she can speak again. Like you would know?!
"Push? You mean like... push the baby out? Um... if you feel like you're supposed to? I guess?"
"I do... but if it's too soon... it's bad if it's too soon... and something's wrong, I know it -- something's wrong!"
Fuck! You wonder if Joel would have any idea about this part, at all... he'd have to know more than you, wouldn't he? Even if it's just from seeing it in movies or something? But of course, he's offering nothing to this conversation and you'll just have to reason it out yourself. "Well... the only way that baby's coming out is if you push, and... clearly it's time for it to come out, right? So... I say if you wanna push, you should push."
It's a bit stuffy in the camper so you crank open all the windows you can find. You give Avery drinks of water and keep offering her the stick. You hold her hand when she seems to want to squeeze the shit out of it. You wipe the sweat off her brow with a damp rag. You can't think of anything else that might help at all, and the poor scared woman isn't very good at telling you what to do. Except for "make it stop," which she whimpers every so often, making you feel completely helpless.
You are so never having children!
You've gathered that the bursts of pain she's having are close enough together that this baby should be born very soon... yet it's not happening. Some are worse than others. You kind of thought they should get worse and worse right up 'til the end... but what do you know?
Avery looks at you. "Can you go see if... if you think I'm dilated enough? If you can see... anything? Like the head?"
You blanch at that prospect. "Uh..."
"Please? I know you don't really... know, about any of this, but... can you please look?"
Now would be a really good time for Joel to wake up! He has to be faking it now, you've decided. He couldn't have faked the going-pale thing, and you do believe he passed out, it's just that that was like... forever ago. But, honestly... he's been such a wuss about all this, can you really imagine him sticking his head between the woman's legs to look up her vagina right now?!
No. It's up to you.
"Sure. I'll look." You hope you sound more confident than you feel. You slowly move down and position yourself in front of her. "Er... I'm gonna pull your underwear down, okay? Is that okay?" you ask dumbly, and she nods -- duh, of course it's okay, how else are you supposed to see? And is the baby supposed to fucking push through that? No, she needs to lose these...
You occupy yourself with that for a few moments, leaving her panties hooked on her left ankle for 'safe-keeping.' Okay... just LOOK... look and be cool...
You... don't see anything. Just bush!
"Oh no," Avery whimpers, watching you (maybe you shouldn't have propped her head up?).
"No, it's fine! I just... don't see anything. ...So, nothing weird!" you add cheerfully.
She relaxes a little. "I guess... you can't see if I'm dilated... maybe you can feel it?"
"You mean...? No." And by that, you mean HELL no. You don't even know what she's talking about! The only thing you know of that dilates is pupils. "No, I don't wanna hurt you. I don't-- no. No way."
She actually chuckles. "I get it. It's gross... it's okay... can you stay there, though? And just... see? -Do you have a knife?"
Oh God, what does she want me to do with the knife?! "Yeah," you reply hesitantly. "...Why?"
"I think just... to cut the cord?"
"Oh. Right. Yeah." There's a cord that connects the baby to the uterus. You did learn about some of this shit in school. You pull out your switchblade and lay it on the blanket. Did this knife cut MY cord? you can't help wondering.
Then you wait. With every new pain (contractions, they're called), you hold your breath... and wait.
After four more of them, you finally see something going on in front of you. "Avery -- omigod -- I think I see the head! Push! Fucking push, girl!"
This news seems to energize her a little, and you get the feeling she's pushing really hard, biting down on that stick just as hard.
"Keep pushing!" You don't tell her that you don't see it anymore. You're not sure what that means, and you don't want to alarm-- oh, it's back! "I see it, Avery! Keep pushing! You can do it!" You wonder if you should touch the baby... are you supposed to try to pull it out? Doctors probably have tools for that. Your hands are relatively clean right now, but... they're hands. Unskilled ones. What if you tug in the wrong spot and deform the kid or something?
"The head's almost out! Good job -- keep going! Um -- do you want me to... I dunno... pull? Or just like... catch it when it comes out?" She's too busy moaning and pushing; you're not sure she even heard you.
You wonder and fret and worry and practically shit your pants with fear -- but when you see the baby's shoulders, you feel like you can help a little now -- like you should help -- and you're so fucking ready for this to be done (you can only imagine how ready she is!). You also feel excited -- I'm delivering a fucking BABY, oh my God -- and it's all bloody and slimy and gross but you don't care... you're still scared to hurt the baby by pulling it the wrong way, so you're pretty much just holding it... but Avery pushes the little body into your hands, and you tug it out -- it's pretty impossible to do it gently, but considering what the poor little thing's just been through, you think it's okay?
"I got it!" you announce to Avery. "Okay... I'm gonna, um..." You grab the towel and pat the baby's face. It looks like it has snot coming out of its little nose and mouth.
"He's not crying... why isn't he crying?" Avery whimpers. "Oh God..."
You haven't even bothered to see what sex it is (does she somehow know it's a boy?) -- you just need it to breathe... come on, baby, pleeeeeease... do you know what your mom just went through? BREATHE! You've wiped away all the slime from its little nose and mouth...
...then the baby cries! And it's the most beautiful sound you've ever heard! You look at the tiny baby in wonder for a moment, marveling at the little mewing sounds emitting from that crumpled red face... then you look at Avery, who's laughing (super hoarsely now) with relief. You laugh, too-- "Holy shit! Omigod-- okay -- um -- cut the cord, cut the cord... hang on, Avery, just gotta clean up a little here..."
Avery's all smiles now. "Is it a boy or a girl?"
Continue to page 199.
Carlos
Date: 2020-06-19 08:25 pm (UTC)Re: Carlos
Date: 2020-06-20 12:23 am (UTC)