A Midwife in the Apocalypse

A midwife got arrested for clipping people’s hair in The Stag. 

In the dim light of the local pub nobody would notice a tiny trim but it was enough hairs for her to use over and over. A pass was needed to hang out there so she knew everyone would be free from the mutation and the tests would come back clear. 

But this morning management waited for her to arrive for her shift. Nobody knows where they took her. 

Her idea had not been a good one but it had been noble. 

“I need you to breathe… Stop pushing for a few seconds and just take a breath. I can see the baby’s head so just relax before this next push” instructed Evelyn. This was her tenth birth of the day.  

The expectant mother had been adamant that she didn’t want Evelyn’s Pulp Fiction t-shirt to be the first thing her baby saw. But now that the time had come she had other things on her mind. Thank God. It was the only clean shirt Evelyn had left. 

“Alright now I need you to push for the count of ten… One… Two…”

Thunder ripped through the skies as her screams ripped through the ward. And then a little newborn slipped out into the world. His sweet cries filled the room as his mother fell back, exhausted and relieved. She reached out for him and kissed him all over as if he was glazed in strawberry jam. 

Evelyn gently pulled out the afterbirth with the umbilical cord. She cleaned, weighed and swaddled the baby, then handed him back. She even let the mother coo and rock him for a while.  

Soon there was nothing else to do but collect the sample. 

She clipped what few hairs the baby had on it’s head and put them in a small ziploc bag. They would be sent to the lab on the floor above and the results would be back by the end of the day. 

All the tests came back with an anomaly.

Some midwives collected the sample before anything else, sometimes before even letting the mother hold the baby. But, Evelyn made sure she was finished with the maternity care before conducting her new duty. She still believed this was a maternity ward first. 

At the clang of midnight Evelyn’s shift was over. 

Clumps of snow fell out of the black sky and melted into the cobblestone alleyway. She looked up and was thankful for the icy flurries which melted into her face, her skin was hot from rushing everywhere. 

She heard a clatter. Beyond the misty glow of the street lamp the lanes disappeared into darkness. It could be looters. It could be another fight outside The Stag; they regularly taunted those without a pass. Or, it could be something even worse… 

She wasn’t going to stay long enough to find out. She put up her hood and stepped out from the doorway.

They were one of the only maternity wards still open and now they were down to six midwives. There were no more shifts; they were on shift all the time. Evelyn had moved into the hospital, she had gone for days without seeing the outside. 

She was on her twelfth birth of the day. 

The mother -she always asked their name but at this point they blur- lay with her baby on her chest, the umbilical cord still stretching down and attached inside her. Evelyn injected oxytocin into the mother’s thighs and massaged them gently as the drug took.

“How can this little thing be a monster?” the mother teased

“I wouldn’t be so sure” Evelyn muttered

“What do you mean…?”

“My mother didn’t take me home with her from the hospital so she must have found something terribly threatening about me…” 

The mother was silent. 

“Is that why you give us time with our babies before you collect the sample? Because that’s all the time you got with your mother?”

“I think it’s more likely I remained untouched by her. But, seeing mothers, covered in sweat and tears, reach out for their newborns gives me a sense of hope. It gives me a sense of peace.” 

“Did you ever want to find her?”

“I found out her. Elenor Brimstone. But I have no interest in reaching out”

“Could she reach out to you?”

“She doesn’t know anything about me” 

She picked up the clippers and moved towards the baby’s head. 

That afternoon Evelyn was called up to the lab. The head of operations wanted to speak with her.

Professor Clark was an expert in evolution. In his office there was a small futon with blankets and pillows bundled onto it. The floor was covered in papers and the desk piled high with them. He also had a large collection of bird feathers, labelled and hung on the wall in display cases. While on a side cabinet were models showing the evolution of birds, from the early Dromaeosaurus all the way to a stuffed barn owl, frowning at her in a glass bell dome. 

“Hi Evelyn” he called across the room “we’ve had some problems with midwives the last few days. I’m sure you heard about Victoria clipping hairs from people in the local pub. She was swapping the baby’s hairs for hair she collected which would pass the mutation tests. So I wanted to check in” 

“Okay” 

“I heard you just qualified a few months ago so I want you to know we value you. This isn’t just about gathering information, we need you, we need the specialised care you give women” 

“Okay” 

They stared at each other. 

“Well then, if you feel fine I guess I have nothing more to say…” 

She turned to leave then she turned back. 

“What are you doing with all this information?” 

“A few months ago there was a mutation found in some human DNA. A mutation which means those who have it aren’t human anymore. There have been some… Incidents. Strange incidents” 

She had heard about these incidents, the whole world had. Nobody knew exactly what had happened but the rumours were enough to cause panic. 

“So” he continued “we need to monitor these newborns to find out how this mutations affects them and what this mutation really is. But also, if these new beings can live with humans.” 

“Then what happens?” 

“…We’ll do what needs to be done” he concluded. 

Less and less women were coming in to have their babies. The news of the DNA testing system was spreading fast and secret birth sites had been set up. 

It was past midnight. A thin layer of snow lay on the ground outside the automatic doors. Evelyn turned off the main lights and left a lamp at reception, she went to grab a few hours of sleep. 

Suddenly she heard a woman screaming. 

Evelyn ran back onto the ward. A woman was at reception in pyjamas and Ugg boots, one hand clung to the desk and the other cradled a bulging baby bump. Her hair was wet with sweat and pyjamas wet with other fluids. 

“Please help me” she panted, tears ran down her face. Evelyn skidded up to her and caught her as she fell. “I’ve traveled so far to find a maternity ward that’s still open… I tried to have her in secret but… I’m scared” she cried. 

“It’s alright” Evelyn soothed. She held onto the woman’s arm as she slowly walked her to a room “I’ll get you set up in the room and then I’ll see what’s happening. How long have you been having contractions?”

“Oh about ten hours” she wailed

“Okay and what’s your name?”

“Elenor Brimstone” 

Evelyn let go of her arm and let her drop to the floor.  

Evelyn peered through the crack in the door. Her mother had dark, thick hair the same as she did. She also had a sharp chin and grey eyes just the same as her. She lingered there for a while, inspecting her. The screams hadn’t woken anyone else or rather no one wanted to get out of bed and help. 

It was up to her. She pushed open the door and went into the room. 

“So, it’s all going to be alright. We’re going to do this together. When you feel the contraction coming I need you to push, okay?” 

“Okay” Elenor reached out and grabbed onto her hand. 

Evelyn held it tightly. 

It was an hour of pushing with Evelyn’s relentless encouragement and their knuckles turning white as they grasped one another. But finally Evelyn held up a tiny, wriggling baby girl. 

Elenor immediately reached out for the baby and took her in her arms. She cradled her, smiling through tears. She cooed and kissed her and nestled her face against her. 

Evelyn silently watched it all. 

Until she had to move in with the clippers. 

“Oh right” Elenor wiped away tears “you think things will change but they don’t…”

“What do you mean?” 

“Well… I had my first at sixteen and I wasn’t allowed to keep her. The choice was made for me. And now I finally have the courage to have another and… It’s still not my choice what happens to us or what happens to her” she looked down at the baby. 

She took the hairs she needed and put them in the ziploc bag. 

Evelyn sat on the toilet lid in the employee bathroom. Her tears ran thick and fast.

She thought about what she could do. 

Victoria got caught because she was swapping hairs for every single baby. In a week all of her tests came back clear. But, it wouldn’t be suspicious if just one test came back clear… 

She sat for a little while longer. They would expect a sample soon. 

Finally she he got up, lifted the lid, threw the plastic bag in the toilet and flushed it. Then she put on her jacket, hood up, and went out into the town. 

An emergency meeting was letting out of the town hall, a crowd of people flowed into the square. They all needed a pass to be at those meetings. They were panicked, talking over each other and huddling together. Nobody noticed as she slipped between them with a pair of scissors. 

She handed in the sample. 

The results would come back in a few hours and she knew they would be clear. Until then she swaddled the baby girl in a soft blanket and laid her down in a cot as her mother slept. 

The two of them would be able to leave this place together and live freely. Whatever happened next at least it would be their choice to make. 

By Evelyn B

Evelyn likes to tell dark, gothic stories usually set some time in the future, she hopes to expand on this story and build the world even more. 

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