Black Womb

Hamamelis cuts off the radio transmission for the seventh time that day. He opens the refrigerator to drink something cold. Only one half-liter bottle remains.He drinks.He does not think about tomorrow. He sees no reason to think about the next thirst. The radio is silent, but he hears something other than the sounds of nature. As it gets closer, it becomes the sound of helicopter blades.

“Damn city people,” he says to himself.

He waits until he hears the helicopter blades directly above him. They have arrived. A little earlier than he expected. There are three of them. They wear full-body suits with strange goggles and masks. He goes up to the roof.They call out his name impatiently. He can barely hear them until they get closer.The one with the older voice asks Hamamelis for permission to enter the house.But he stops them.

“You might contaminate the inside if you come in.”

“We need your help,” the older man says.

“Who said I can help? I’m one of you.”

A younger man joins in.

“We checked your records and, based only on a message from a stranger, we barely managed to find your house. Why don’t you want to help?”

Hamamelis feels unsafe outside the house now, and his concern shows in his voice.

“From your tone, I can tell you’re impatient, which makes sense—you’re young. If you had fully studied my records, you would trust me. Research has to be completed before the results are presentable.”

The younger man says in surprise:

“But we didn’t expect you to move this slowly. Counting ourselves, only ten people survived. How can you be so—”

Suddenly, a voice comes through the radio attached to one of them.

“Doctor, doctor, someone’s behind the door. They’ve been banging on it for a few minutes.”

The older man answers:

“Don’t open it. They might be a carrier.”

The voice from the radio says:

“Doctor, it looks like she’s pregnant.”

The older man replies:

“It doesn’t matter anymore—”

Hamamelis interrupts him.

“You should help her.”

The younger man says:

“Danger is everywhere right now, just like how you didn’t let us into your house, Professor!”

This time, Hamamelis tries harder to convince them.

“Considering how many people are here, I think there are only ten people in the shelter. And if there isn’t a woman among them, then any woman capable of reproduction is a treasure. Besides, if the woman behind that door were infected, she should have died within the last twelve hours.”

The older man steps away from the group and speaks into the radio.

“What’s her physical condition? What do her clothes look like? Is anyone with her? Check around with the cameras as much as you can. See if there are any fresh bodies nearby.”

The answer comes back:

“Since she got to the door, I haven’t seen anything suspicious. Even the mask over her nose and mouth hasn’t left her face for a second.”

The older man comes back closer to the group and whispers to the professor:

“If we let her in like you said, will you help us too?”

Professor Hamamelis nods.

The older man speaks into the radio:

“Let her in.”

Then he says to the third man:

“Go prepare the helicopter for takeoff.”

He turns back to Hamamelis.

“Professor Hamamelis, it’s time for you to gather whatever you need.”

Hamamelis replies:

“I don’t need anything. Besides, that name is only useful in journals and research papers. You can call me Edgar.”

The rescue team and Hamamelis move away from the area by helicopter.

Suddenly, the pilot notices something strange and says to the older man:

“Doctor, I need to lower the altitude a little. I think I saw something strange down there.”

The doctor’s attention is drawn.

“It looks like some kind of strip dividing the forest into two halves.”

The pilot says:

“Then I’ll go lower and follow it to see where it leads.”

The younger man shouts:

“Do you see those stone structures that look like platforms too?”

The pilot asks Professor Hamamelis:

“Professor, there seem to be many of them spread apart from each other. Do you know anything about them?”

Hamamelis replies:

“My eyes are covered. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The older man asks:

“By the way, we never got the chance to ask. What happened to your eyes?”

Hamamelis pauses slightly before answering:

“.....They were damaged during recent research.”

The pilot quietly says to the doctor:

“There are other strange things in this forest too... Doctor, look at the platform on the left. It looks like someone is lying on it.”

The older doctor says:

“Slow down... yeah... looks like a woman.”

The pilot keeps the helicopter hovering.

“She seems alive. Maybe she’s infected. She’s twisting around.”

The doctor replies:

“It makes no difference to us. Move.”

Before continuing, the pilot looks more carefully.

“She looks pregnant too.”

Hamamelis puts a hand on the pilot’s shoulder and anxiously says:

“We need to save that woman. Right now.”

The older man says:

“And why this one? Do you want to get us all killed?”

Hamamelis replies:

“These movements can’t be symptoms of the disease.”

The doctor angrily says to the pilot:

“I said move. We can’t risk healthy people’s lives on the possibility that outsiders aren’t infected.”

Hamamelis shouts:

“Doctor, why don’t you understand? That woman is dealing with something else right now.”

The pilot says:

“Look, Doctor... strange... that woman has covered her eyes too, just like the Professor.”

The younger man sitting beside Hamamelis shouts:

“Talk. You definitely know something.”

The pilot continues:

“What’s happening here...?”

Hamamelis says restlessly:

“If you want all of us to stay alive, we need to save that woman.”

The doctor, still confused like the rest of his team, asks:

“What do you mean, Edgar? What connection does that woman have to saving us?”

This time, the professor answers calmly:

“The antibodies are inside her body.”

The younger man mockingly says:

“Then what is she doing in the middle of the forest?”

Hamamelis becomes angry again.

“Because I sent her toward your shelter earlier. Weren’t you the ones asking me for help over the radio?”

Then he turns toward the doctor.

“I told you that you had to trust me.”

After a short silence inside the helicopter, the older doctor orders the pilot to land.

After landing, Hamamelis rushes toward the woman and says to the rescue team:

“Don’t come closer. I need to make sure she’s still okay.”

Hamamelis says to the woman:

“I’m here, sweetheart. No need to worry.”

The woman groans painfully.

“You came for me...?”

Hamamelis says:

“This isn’t the time for that. We need to deliver the baby somehow. Let me open the bag you brought.”

The older man loudly asks:

“Is she okay?”

Hamamelis replies:

“Yes, yes, but stay where you are.”

The doctor says:

“If you need anything, there’s a first-aid kit in the helicopter.”

Hamamelis waves his hand in thanks to show he doesn’t need help.

The woman, after hearing them, says:

“You could have saved many of them much earlier, but—”

Suddenly, she groans more intensely.

Hamamelis says:

“Stop talking. Where’s the disinfectant in your backpack?”

Hamamelis lowers the cloth covering his eyes slightly and quickly finds the disinfectant solution. He prepares the woman for childbirth and places the lower half of her body into a long bag.

The pain grows stronger moment by moment.

She says:

“Do you think... ah... this baby being born... even has any meaning...?”

Hamamelis angrily shouts:

“I told you to stop talking. Just puuuuush!”

Suddenly, after a louder cry of pain, the woman loses consciousness. The sound of a newborn crying comes from inside the bag. The pilot, standing behind Hamamelis, quietly says:

“I think you need help now, don’t you?”

Filled with excitement, Hamamelis quickly turns toward him.

“No!”

The pilot notices that the blindfold has slipped lower and sees that Hamamelis’s eyes are healthy.

He pauses and says nothing. Hamamelis quickly turns back to hide his eyes.

“You should keep your distance from us. Both of them—the mother and the baby—are in their most vulnerable condition.”

The stunned pilot walks back toward the others.

The professor eagerly lifts the baby out of the bag and notices abnormal black secretions covering its body.

Holding the baby with his left arm, he glances once at the woman’s vagina and hopelessly confirms what he already suspected. Without cutting the umbilical cord, he places the baby on its mother’s stomach and slowly steps away from them. The doctor and his teammates silently watch him in complete confusion until he finally stands still. A weak sound of breathing comes from the woman.

“Edgar... it’s a girl... just like you wanted.”

Hamamelis replies:

“You should say ‘was.’ You know she won’t survive for long. I warned you not to leave the house.”

Now with a trembling voice, the woman says:

“All my life, you told me to trust you. I trusted your ropes and your platforms. You were the one who wanted everything for yourself from the beginning. I couldn’t tolerate your selfishness anymore. I wanted to reach the shelter and tell the others how to avoid getting infected.”

At that moment, a voice comes through the doctor’s radio:

“Doctor... doctor... has something happened? Why haven’t you arrived yet?”

When nobody answers, the radio speaks again:

“Doctor, I need to tell you something important... one of us in here...”

The doctor, impatient to hear the rest, says:

“I’m listening.”

The worried voice says:

“One of us has developed the disease. What should we do now?”

The doctor says:

“The pregnant woman is infected, right?”

The voice replies:

“No, Doctor. The second pilot from your team—the one who stayed behind with us.”

The older doctor asks in shock:

“My team?!!!”

He looks at the two younger men beside him. Then he asks the professor:

“Edgar... is there any hope?”

Hamamelis removes his mask and the protective covering around his face.

The skin beneath his eyes has turned black. With unnatural calm, he says:

“This disease enters through the moist openings of the body... and there’s no way out after that.”