Hell Follows After (Monster of the Apocalypse Saga) (25 page)

The meetings in Angus’ home continued, and Occam became an expected and valued participant. He and Angus, as well as Bluehawk and Frank, came to be an anticipated quartet about town. They would dine together often, sharing drinks afterward and picking up the check in rotation. Well, perhaps not evenly. Frank seemed to find Bluehawk’s obligation often his own. But there was camaraderie not to be broken by such minor things, and they enjoyed everything from banal conversation to heated debate without animosity.

When possible, Pearl was invited along. She frequently declined, feeling an increasing frailty growing in her aging bones. Occasionally she would attend meetings in her portly friend’s home, but often she would invite them to hers. As the school year wound down, she spent a lot of her time with the robot.

The continuing dialogue on the robot was a mainstay of much of the group’s focus. The creature had proven to be more fantastic than imagined and in some ways an enigma.

The elderly black woman had noticed one thing that concerned her greatly. The metal man seemed reticent, never divulging information unless asked. Voicing her apprehension, the rest concurred. They had noticed the behavior as well. With the artificial, they had to know what to ask, or information would not be forthcoming. In some ways this was frustrating, but Pearl saw it as perhaps more. That the being was inclined to withhold knowledge from them seemed… perhaps sinister. She wondered if the robot had a reason to be secretive.

For Charon’s part the inclination to be silent came naturally. In the beginning days with the creators, long before now, it had found little reason to inform humans. Men and women seemed inclined to be more focused on doing than learning, so there was little opportunity or reason to expand the biological human animals’ knowledge. Later, after much experience with humans countermanding logic as understood by the mechanicals, the metal beings had decided that keeping their mouths shut was the appropriate thing to do. The humans seemed fine with this and were happier. They always seemed better equipped to deal with a bot that did what it was told, following orders without comment. Silence was learned, and Charon was inclined to use that ability.

Each of those concerned in the revival of the artificial technology had an interest in investigating the robot. After the initial day of awakening in which the group sat
en masse
, asking questions, time was allotted to the college once a week for students to interact, a different professor participating each time. Nights with the creature were given in rotation, but after a few people became less interested and maybe even unnerved, Pearl became the one to benefit. She absorbed the time made available with the bot as others declined.

For his part Occam was thrilled. He brought the robot home to meet Olivia. They had taken to dining together in the evenings when Occam was not occupied, and Olivia was charmed by the metal man. She actually took one of its hands and led it to a seat, treating it as she would a child.

The first day Occam had the mechanical to himself, he took it to his forge, expecting to craft something simple and see if the robot could learn to do rudimentary metalwork. The artificial man stood patiently watching, and when instructed to repeat what Occam had shown it, the creature beat out an exact duplicate in less time than Occam had. The big Smith was shaken, his mind turning on what he had witnessed and what it might mean. Without further demonstration the Blacksmith instructed the robot to make another object, something intricate and demanding a knowledge of metal. The metal man shocked him, for the first time shaking out his second set of arms, hidden within the matrix of his usual, known ones. There was work to do, and the machine performed. Occam became the student.

Pregnancy wore Olivia like a good work glove on a craftsman’s hand. The condition suited her. Where some women gained weight until they lost themselves, where some spent mornings and even days in nauseated misery, Olivia took her first child’s occupancy of her body in stride. She had never been happier, and those in her presence basked in the glow she bestowed on them.

The local midwife compared knowledge with the women from the wagon train, learning from each other and building the confidence that is so valued in the act of bringing new life into the world. Well educated and experienced, she set up a schedule with Olivia for prenatal care and provided some instructional texts on what was to come. The young woman absorbed them eagerly.

Walking into town daily as a matter of course, Jody was happy to be part of the experience. She and Olivia found their new made wealth from selling the great bulls to be an interesting phenomenon. They now had money to invest in trade and became confidants in speculating on various investments.

For her part Olivia did her best to assuage Jody’s depression over what had occurred with Edge in the barn. She tried to put it in perspective for Jody, feeling that her friend was missing her true feelings and an opportunity, but sympathizing with Jody in her feelings about polygamy, even though she was herself ambivalent.

Olivia felt that Occam was the best thing that could have happened to her, and she was thrilled that he was interested in taking her to wife. She had known Muffy and grieved at her death, and she knew Occam’s other wives. She was sure that adjustments would be necessary and was ready to make them in order to be the man’s most junior wife. Every time the big man touched her, she felt a thrill, something she had never had with her… the one she avoided thinking about.

The wedding was planned after the midwife declared a due date. Confident in the woman’s expertise, the newly engaged couple planned for their nuptials to be validated a week prior to the wagons pulling out on the return trip. There was plenty of time for the baby to be born before, and they awaited the event with joy and confidence.

A late calf coming from a recalcitrant heifer focused Edge as he leaned on the fence watching. The beast was in the late stages and would soon present. Next to him, Occam took lessons as Edge described what was taking place, elaborating on the complications that could happen as well as the norms. The robot stood watching to one side.

A tug, light and tentative, on Occam’s sleeve brought his regard to a small, heavily breathing boy who was shy but diligently begging his attention.

The little one gasped out, “Come quick… Miss Olivia’s having the baby!”

What those words do to a man, a man with an interest in the woman giving birth, is universal… panic, and then a cold resolve to control the outcome. Placing on hold all the priorities already decided, Occam reevaluated each of them in an instant and threw many out. He had to be the one in control because a woman in the act of birth was not able to be. It was his responsibility.

“Edge, high you hence and find a horse! Fetch the midwife and bring her, quick… Wait, better you hitch the buggy. Better even… find one already in service and command it. This be more important than another’s tasks, so be not afraid to demand!”

The sudden change in Occam, a man most often steady and highly focused, did not surprise Edge. He laughed inside, understanding this was normal for an expectant father, and not realizing his own turn would be much the same someday.

“Be at ease, Occam, be at ease. These things take time. Surely Olivia will not be in need of the woman for hours. Get thee gone and beside her, and I will fetch the midwife as soon as the calf is on the ground alive. It will be only moments.”

In his new state of mind, almost anything would have sounded reasonable. Clapping a hand on Edge’s shoulder in brotherhood, Occam tried to exude confidence and calm.

“Indeed, Edge, there be time… but make haste as soon as the calf draws breath. Better sooner than later.”

With the words spoken, Occam turned on his heel and ran. He did not realize he looked like a man in panic, and if he had he would not have cared.

The heifer spilled the calf out until the hips got stuck. Then she got up and tried to nudge the limp, hanging baby, spinning in a tight circle to see what it was hanging from her rump. The calf flapped its ears and in a small, frothy bawl startled its mother. The heifer kicked and bucked, the calf detaching and hitting the ground in a sodden lump, and the cow took off.

Knowing all was well, that the frightened heifer would return to clean and encourage the calf to stand and nurse, Edge grinned. This was the best part of life. He turned to run into town to find a buggy or hitch one up and noticed Charon standing silently, gazing at the calf. In his haste Occam had forgotten all about the creature.

There was no need for Edge to have the robot go along with him. In fact, it might delay him.

“You know of where Occam went? The cabin Olivia and Jody share?” He asked the metal man.

“I do,” voiced the bot.

“Then get thee to Olivia’s house quickly, and make to be useful.”

A
life spent cursing is a life not at all. But the man driving oxen in the mud, lashing their backs with a thirty-foot bull whip as though taking out all the wrongs of the world was beyond recognizing how miserable he was.

The man limped alongside the hitch, berating the beasts as though they could understand, and any who witnessed wondered at the scene. Several entertained the idea that the man had passed into insanity and considered reporting the abuse of the animals to the man who owned them but in the end kept their mouths shut.

It was the way of the world. People hesitated to place themselves in the business of a person out of control and doing egregious ill, while they would have thought nothing of doing so in the case of a person doing little of any real harm they considered weak and unlikely to cause trouble.

A single individual had dared to speak up in all the time Arc had been working the freight wagon, and when the little man turned on him, the whip coiled and at the ready, the man had frozen and immediately regretted his exclamation. He cringed and quailed beneath the gaze of a physically much smaller man but one that frightened him to his core.

Beyond the task at hand, beating the animals into performing, Arc was occupied with his own intentions. He seethed under a dark cloud of possibilities. Time spent studying his enemies was coming to an end. He had to act soon, before the wagons began the long journey home. There was a time limit on his patience.

Soon…

Finding the door of the cabin open, Charon entered. A stage set in intensity met its optics. The young, female human, so apparently gravid in her kindness to the robot, sat in a chair in the center of the room. No, not sat, more… reclined into it. Facing the door, sweat beaded on her brow and eyes closed, she bore down in the throes of heavy labor.

Between Olivia’s legs and kneeling on the floor in preparation for catching the child to be born, Occam made an attempt to support the perineum as the head crowned. His own head lolled from side to side, an obvious sign that he was in trouble, ready to pass out.

Make to be useful
, the robot had been instructed.

There was a low table next to Occam, one of Olivia’s bare feet using it for a brace as she clenched and strained. As the robot watched, Occam’s head seemed to detach from his shoulders, collapsing toward the table’s sharp edge.

The mechanical stepped forward and placed its legs to either side of Occam’s shoulders, supporting the big man as he melted toward the floor. The woman strained, a moan not unlike the moo of a cow emanating from deep within her, unbidden but undeniable. Hands clutching the arms of the chair, Olivia bore down, and the head of the baby emerged. Bending down, Charon reached to accept the child into the world.

All women with the urge to mother a child have ideas of what the birth experience will be. In the days before the plagues, the majority of those in developed countries had their babies at home. More than half giving birth in Great Britain were attended by midwives and many more than that in China. The United States led the way in medically assisted births and as a result had more injuries and infections than less medically focused countries. The statistics spoke for themselves, but the medical lobby had hidden the facts in their own interest. In a nation that respected education and experts, women and their husbands shed their own accountability in favor of placing responsibility in the hands of those intent on making money. Parents, particularly women, were never informed willingly, and the machine of birth-for-profit chewed them up and spit them out.

Two hundred years later, Olivia had knowledge and a mental attitude designed to focus on what she would not be able to avoid. Part of that attitude was to embrace the birth experience, allowing her body to perform as it was intended. One of the first lessons that came to bear was the instruction to “get out of the way of the pain.”

Remembering the drill and her experiences in assisting other births, Olivia started her labor as she would any effort with a goal in mind. She started with pacing, staying upright and allowing gravity to assist. Once she put the pain aside as best she could, an effort with each contraction, she developed her burst of energy into a focus for success. A form of meditation helped to open her body as she forced herself to relax.

Her water broke, and she realized she would probably birth her child by herself. She had not been in labor long enough for the midwife to be summoned, and Jody had gone into town. When the small boy from next door appeared, Olivia sent him running for help.

The pressure release as the water broke felt wonderful, but almost immediately the intense pain of contractions began anew. She walked when she could, squatting regularly as she visualized the baby moving into the birth canal.

Excitement passed over her as the urge to push began. Using the big chair that Occam favored when he came to visit, Olivia found a comfortable position to bear down. Knowing her effort was soon to culminate in the first new breath of a child became an intense joy. Her heart expanded to accept what was coming, and she pushed.

She began to voice an animal sound with each effort. Without her realizing, without her hearing it, the noise emanated out of her with no awareness of from where or why it came.

Barely noticed, light flooded in. Olivia was in the last stages of transition, her labor accelerated when her water broke early, and she had little awareness of anything except that Occam had arrived. He crouched between her legs, a look of fascinated horror on his face, and then the pain surged, and she pushed.

A sudden release of pressure as the head emerged… another push, the shoulders following in another intense pain… and then relief. Blessed relief, as strange metal arms extended over her and placed a small, wet bundle against her chest.

Strange arms withdrew, almost unnoticed and certainly disregarded. The small, wrinkled face that bubbled at the mouth and blinked with dark, unfocused eyes held Olivia’s attention. How much time passed, Olivia did not know, but gentle hands began to wipe the baby clean and administered silver nitrate to the blinking eyes. Several moments passed before Olivia realized the hands were mechanical.

By the time the new babe was clean, Occam appeared in the background, watching. Soon the grey umbilical cord stopped pulsing, and the robot that Olivia now recognized tied it with a clean cotton lace, cutting the last physical bond between mother and child. The baby was officially an individual. On presenting in a final push and less pain, Charon received the placenta, inspecting to make sure it was complete. Then the bot faded into the background, standing back silently. Bringing a chair close, Occam held Olivia’s hand as she drifted into sleep, exhausted. The baby on her chest did as well, mouth chewing as though finding a new and significant ability.