Page 25 of The Program

‘What’s going on?’ I asked.

‘Karmella’s in labour. It started this morning and is progressing quickly. She needs someplace safe and sanitary to give birth, because the baby’s coming tonight.’

Understanding dawned on me, and though I had never assisted in a childbirth before, I jumped into action.

‘I’m almost done creating the pulley system to haul them up. You need to go to the stream and collect some water. The others can help you carry the buckets I made. They don’t have handles but they should be watertight.’ I gestured to the pile of supplies I had accumulated by the almost-finished pulley system.

She nodded once. Her mussed hair was sticking to her skin in sweaty clumps and there were dark circles under her eyes that matched her fatigued posture, but that didn’t stop the determination from taking over. She physically braced herself for the night ahead, squaring her shoulders and clenching her jaw as she dredged up the energy to keep pushing forward.

I was going to need to hunt for larger game tonight to keep everyone energised, because we were all going to have to pull our weight.

‘Francesca, Marcella, Rose and Jasmine, come with me.’

Four women, presumably those Libby just listed, immediately broke from the circle around the woman writhing in agony on the forest floor.Karmella.I committed her name to my memory bank and made a mental note to learn the names of the others when I got the chance. I couldn’t keep going around referring to them by the size of their bellies.

I watched the five of them disappear into the foliage, praying to the stars and whatever deity would listen that they came back safely and promptly.

Karmella let out a sound that was somewhere between a grunt, a groan and a scream, and it jolted me with the reminder of what I was supposed to be doing. I leapt back towards the pulley system and barked out instructions while I wrapped the length of rope around me I’d created with the vines.

‘Bring her over here. I’m going to climb up and secure the rope and then I can haul her up.’

They waited until Karmella’s contraction finished before half carrying, half dragging her to the rocks. I was already on the ledge by the time they made it, wrapping the vine-ropes around the sturdy rock I’d picked for this purpose because of the smooth hole that ran through it. Then I chucked the ends over the ledge, careful not to hit the women down below and hurriedly climbed back down. I made quick work of securing the platform, then Iclimbed back up to pull from up top. It wasn’t quite the system I had planned, but desperate times called for half-baked measures.

‘Place her on the platform,’ I called down to them after testing the rope’s hold and finding it stable. ‘I’ll pull her up first, then the rest of you can follow one at a time.’

The rope jostled slightly in my grip while they situated her on the wood, then the voice I recognised belonging to Karmella’s partner called up that she was ready. I pulled, making note of the way the vines held together nicely as they scraped against the rock. My enhanced strength came in useful for the task, and I quickly helped Karmella roll onto the ledge. I assisted her as she moved towards the entrance of the cave, though she only made it a few feet before she was in the midst of another contraction and had to stop.

I tried to move back to pull the others up, uncomfortable being left alone with the labouring female, but she stopped me with an iron grip on my hand. ‘Please… don’t… leave me,’ she panted, her last word morphing into a screech of panic and pain. I stayed with her through the contraction, then gently extricated myself from her grasp.

‘I need to bring the others up. If you let me go now, your friend can help you,’ I bartered.

It worked. She released me and gave me an insistent push. I guessed she was eager for someone she trusted over me, not that I blamed her.

‘Karmella’s partner next!’ I ordered after lowering the platform. I leaned over the edge to ensure they obeyed. Indeed, the other heavily pregnant woman quickly settled herself in the centre, and I pulled her up. She didn’t need too much help to get onto the ledge, but I assisted with the initial transfer. She hobbled over to Karmella just in time for another contraction, and I feared we were out of time. At this rate, the baby would arrive before Libby and her group returned with the water.

I definitely wasn’t going to have enough time to boil it to ensure its safety, let alone let it cool before we could use it.

Thankfully, just as I was pulling the last female up I noticed the others rushing through the trees, arms laden with heavy, hastily made bowls filled with water that sloshed with every step. We would need to bring those up before the women, and we would also need to get a fire started as soon as possible.

‘Hey, blondie!’ I called out to the one of the only two in the group with blonde hair besides Liberty. She turned to me expectantly. ‘Think you can start a fire?’

‘I’ve done it before,’ she informed me.

I didn’t want to think about the reasons The Program could have had for teaching her how to start a fire. ‘Good. Start one now. There’s wood and kindling just inside. Water’s here and it needs to boil.’

Her response was to hop to it straight away, and I appreciated her lack of hesitation. I had to coddle some of the women when it came to survival skills at first, but they were picking things up and learning quickly which was making my life a hell of a lot easier.

Trusting she had it in hand, I ignored Karmella’s cries through another contraction, this one seemingly even stronger than previous ones, and focused on my own tasks.

‘Water first, then one at a time!’ I called down, and again they followed orders without hesitation. A sense of pride filled me at how well we were working together as a team in this time of crisis. It gave me hope for the future that we could coexist as a community. Already, trust was being built. These women may be ignorant to survival in the wild, but they weren’t stupid.

They were strong.

They were warriors.

The water was a little trickier to pull up due to the flimsiness of the containers. They had been an afterthought, a little side quest I took as a break from my more important task. I was glad to have taken that break now, however. I only spilled a little of the water by the time I managed to situate them safely on the ledge, and I noticed the blonde woman had managed to create a few sparks and was slowly blowing on the kindling to coax the fire to grow.

She worked fast, and I was impressed. My respect for these women was growing by the tick.

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