Chapter Twenty

As Alicia crossed the colony she ignored the eyes that followed her, the whispers she couldn't hear. She had given up the uncomfortable armor she usually wore in favor of a loose jacket she didn't bother fastening; it felt great. She had only gained twelve pounds, but every bit of it was in the bump forming in her middle; and looking down she was afraid of what she would look like in another five months.

Her scans were normal, their son was growing inside her and the injections she was taking was probably giving him a head start on surviving this world. But the lifestyle he would need to learn was more in line with their neighbors beyond the gates.

The women were becoming close friends, offering advice in how to survive and live that reminded her so much of her grandparents; who accepted how she wanted to deal with this pregnancy. And Storme fully intended to deliver her baby, the woman seemed to assume it from the moment she had to Alicia she was pregnant. It was something she was considering.

She had some time to think about that, and to convince Nathaniel; though he wasn't entirely convinced on a C-section either. For now she was doing light work to help the women maintain their camp with most still up in the mountains bringing down their harvest. At first she had been concerned when they weren't back a few days after the storm, but the women were not.

Alicia had been given a lesson in agriculture. Harvest would take several weeks, and bringing it down safely took even more. Still she would rest easier seeing their neighbors back and this camp bustling again. But great progress had been made in laying out the camp, these women had done it many times before; although this time she sensed a finality in it.

They were building permanent homes, intending to stay with the colony, something she figured would be a great benefit for both settlements. Acadia was already laying stones as she walked up, they had tasked their soldiers scheduled for PT to drag loads of rocks up from the river bed to help the women who refused to wait idly for their families to return. Nathaniel had ordered it after he caught her dragging loads up for them.

Alicia enjoyed the work, and out here she was treated equally, her husband might watch through his scope but for the most part he let her work out here. In the colony people watched with guarded eyes and disapproval whenever she was doing anything. Her duties to the colony were primarily administrative now, and Nathaniel knew if he tried to keep her cooped up all the time his life would become difficult.

She did her work in the mornings and evenings, stopped at the infirmary when asked but slipped to the camp between the fence and the wall when ever she could. Nathaniel radioed her when she was needed at the command center.

…

He needed to touch base with Malcolm Wallace, and it was easier to corner the man when he was a little off guard. Roaming through the science division he frowned when he did not find the man. When he asked he was informed the man was on the other side of the compound; speaking to Elisabeth Shannon.

"You need to order scans much more frequently, the window of opportunity may be narrow; especially now. Her body will already be producing IgG and that will be enhanced, it may be passive but we can use it as the base." It wasn't hard to guess the topic of the conversation, though the excitement in the scientist's voice discussing his wife.

To her credit Elisabeth sounded far less enthused, and he eased a shoulder against the wall, unashamed to eavesdrop. While he didn't fully understand it, and didn't want to, he knew the target was her spleen.

Thanks to Alicia he understood some of the very basic functions of the organ and that the goal of this treatment was essentially tricking it. Making it tell her body she needed more white blood cells than she did while filtering what were taken to be impurities in her blood and storing them.

"The fact she is pregnant may be good in your eyes but I have my own concerns about that. She was in for a scan the day before yesterday and the levels in her blood were not within the range you are looking for." Elisabeth sounded distracted to him, and he was tempted to step into the room. "If she doesn't reach the appropriate level within the next two to three weeks I will not preform the procedure."

Two to three weeks, in that amount of time his son would be at a stage where the doctor would not be willing to do it. He listened as Malcolm tried to convince the woman a later time frame might be possible. It encouraged him to hear the doctor dig her in her heels.

Nathaniel decided to leave talking to Malcolm for another time, he did not like how eager the man seemed to be to have Alicia under a knife; Nathaniel didn't like it. At the moment he wanted to see his wife.

Crossing the market he headed to the gate, he knew where to find her. Alicia preferred the camp to the colony of late, more so since he had asked her not to go OTG; at times she was like a caged cat within the walls. He refused to deny her the satisfaction of the working in the camp and learning these people's survival skills. Her mindset fit with their lifestyle and in truth his as well.

He found her standing in the new construction of a hut, smoothing some sort of concrete mix around a new layer of stones; she looked happy. As he approached the women working with Alicia seemed to fade away; they tended to shy away from him.

It was with great hesitation they accepted any help from the colony. The camp was nearly empty with so many away harvesting the crops they planted before moving down here. But the small group of women managed, managed better than he thought most colonists would have.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as she wiped her hands on her cargos.

"I am fine." He caught the eye roll she stopped. "We've got nearly half the bases up."

"Looks good, do they know when the rest of the camp will be back?"

"I don't know, with the storms we've had I worry." Her eyes roamed the women who had moved to another plot to work. "They're starting to worry too."

"We've discussed sending a unit that way." And he was tempted to do it either way, the storm had hit the colony hard; his side still ached from it's last round.

"Nathaniel we can't interfere." There was disappointment in her voice, he knew she wanted to help; probably wanted to lead it herself.

"Not in this, at least not yet." He offered her water from the flask on his hip. "Doctor Shannon is going to want to operate soon."

"I know. And I know she can't get a clean forward scan." Her hand slid down to rest on their son. He swallowed hard as he thought of the child growing within her. "Nathaniel my next scan will be positive. If she'd asked to see me today it would have been."