Chapter 6

Pregnancy

I couldn't take a sleep, or even a nap after having a long tiring day but there are many thoughts wrangling around my heads and couldn't take it away because of the things that I should be aware of. My Mom told me anything she knows when she was in the field before but on what she describes to me, I don't see the way it is. Maybe the High Council really change everything every now and then, of course, they wouldn't let anyone passed the same course and trials but they will make it harder and harder to prove that everyone who stepped in this process, is worthy of life in the Noble Land.

Somehow, an alarmed woke up the city. I immediately headed towards the living room to finding out Al wasn't there. I hissed. Knowing that Al maybe, at early as this now, betrayed me with his words. Mom was right, people really are a deceiver. The alarmed didn't stop, it was like something happened before as we have seen President Chadwick on a hologram.

I stepped out of the house and to find Al wandering around, trying to locate the frequency of the alarm and where it's coming from. Well, I felt relieved also to see that he didn't leave, I don't know why would I think that it is just because some people are made to lure people out of their words and I think Al hasn't had that option in his mind.

I patted his shoulder, "what's happening?" I asked him.

"Trying to figure that out, Dylan..." he said but his attention focused on the technology he made, and I'm still amazed on how he managed to create it, in just a span of few hours. He really might have a highly intelligent quotient and might deserve being called one of the Licits.

When I look around, I saw others coming out from their houses and swooning to know what's happening because this might be their first test and we should be attentive and must be prepared for it.

"Fuck!" Al dropped his technology when it goes sparks and burns. "Shit! They might have been trying to hack it and they did." He said as he putting his technology away from the fire, "I almost had them..."

And then the alarm stopped.

"What now?!" I hissed.

And then a disrupted signal occurs first and then a voice was heard, "Good day, all the rebirth-takers, as we proceed on our primal test on your first trimester, we'll give you the first one which is a risk for everyone because, at this point, the surety of every individual is not viable. Work for it, fight for it and don't let it break you... see you soon, people." and then the hologram has gone which for a second, everyone started being so dumb that we don't actually know what to do because the primal tests didn't exactly show what should we do, instead of something we should be prepared of.

As I see the other people, going back inside their houses and for a minute, they left with their things. And so Al and I were so confused that these people are going to do something they don't actually even know.

"What's really the test is?" I asked Al.

He timidly shook his head, he really had no idea, "I don't know Dy... and this is not just a simple test coming from them."

My eyes narrowed from what he said, "what do you mean?"

"We're going in for the first trimester and for the first few weeks, nothing actually happened," he explained but I still don't get it.

"I still don't get it."

"They want us to grow and that's the risk they've been referring too... if that's it, just only what I thought of."

I patted his shoulder, "maybe you're right, but what else are the risks playing around?"

He raised his brow on me, "know anything about pregnancy?"

I shake my head, "not really..."

He nodded, "'cause that what's happening, Dy."

I chuckle, "oh-okay... I get it but still... you know?"

"Right... we'll get back to you." he pats my shoulder and gets back inside the house.

I was left outside as I have seen the other people walking, running off the street and leaving their houses. As much I want to think deeply, there's no going around in my head and I couldn't even make it more widely open to the thought of Al but this initiation called Rebirth—and we're gonna be reborn after this process. That's their practice, and we should know how to live under their system.

I saw the young male who's rummaging his backpack, without hesitation, I came running to help him.

"Hey... do you need help?" I said but then when he looked back into me, he immediately pulled off a knife from his backpack and pointed it to me. I put both hands up in the air and steps backward as the sharp knife was looking for a body to slash on. "Woah! Please, put the knife down... I just came to help." I said and reasoned but I think he isn't the type of person who would've fallen for it.

"I don't need help." he said, "just get out of my way and we're good."

I nodded, as I make myself calm down. "Okay... we're good. I'll go now."

As I walk away from him, I didn't even realize he's going to attack me on my back but I immediately got to dodge it and watched him shivered, like a fish coming out of the water, and he's reaching for the therefore tracker in his neck and as what he does next, he's scratching it off. I wanted to stop him but it's like I couldn't do it. He bleeds as he peeled off his skin with the therefore tracker on its flesh.

"It' feels so good..." he mumbled but suddenly, he falls to the ground and black out. The blinking light from its tracker gone after the second he let out his last breath.

I couldn't stand it. I walked away from him and didn't know that the person would go beyond that point to stop the pain he's feeling. After all, the pain we felt is all we have until the end. It is not inevitable, but you can always accept the pain dwelling inside.

The good thing I did, I just make myself feel the pain instead of making a horrible mistake as he did. There will always be something we get, more than the pain we have. We should just know how to handle ourselves while having it because we will lose knowing that pain already killed us.

"Dylan, what happened?" Al said and didn't notice his presence until he speaks.

I shrugged off, I couldn't seem to find words on how to explain the scenario I have been watched. It is gross, it is really. Bathing on your own blood, peeling off your own skin, feeling the relief of so much pain. "It just happens... I just came to help him..."

He gulped, looked away from the dead body. "Don't mind to answer it, Dy." He said, "but I just needed your help."

My forehead creased, "for what?"

"My technology burns and the other parts weren't operating. I just needed the new parts." He said, "if you don't mind, we'll use your bike?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." I said, "where do we go?"

"On the city."

I get to prepare my bike and Al will be directing the way. While we're on the road, obviously there were some people whose looking unto us as we pass by them and I know the thing what's going on their heads, they usually hope that they had this motorbike. Everyone wanted it, it's efficient and useful though it's not really for everyone.

When we reach the city, we decided not to take the bike inside as it will become an attraction and people will learn to want it. And so in the end, we'll walk as Al found that store he's referring to. I'm still learning on how to trust Al but on the way he treated, we'll get along together and I may have found the person who I can see at the end of the line.

"Remember what we're talking about earlier, Dy?" he said.

I nodded to him, "yes, the risks of pregnancy? What about that?"

"I may have actually the idea of what risks they've been referring too."

I easily get interested and somehow confused to what he said, "okay, I'm listening."

"I have known many women dealing with pregnancy when we're still on the Waste Land. And that gives me somehow an idea that on this very first weeks, there's a lot of risks when it's still new."

"I'm learning but I wanted to know your point, Al."

He smirks, couldn't just bear it not having any idea to what he's talking about. "Okay... here it is, the first one could be abortion."

My intelligence quotient didn't have a really high percent, so I won't get the connection of it but yeah, he already has a point because abortion is what makes the unnatural doing of a person to stop it from growing. "Okay... abortion, tell me... I wanna learn."

"On the first trimester, it could happen, many young women even the adults would try it just to save up something that value of themselves, don't lose to it but some don't want a child, they don't wanna grow it up, or it is just a wrong timing but that wasn't the point. We are on Rebirth, and the abortion would somehow come up by them—"

I stopped him "wait, what them, are you talking about?"

"The High Council." He stated. "If they don't want you to grow, they will let you and force you to die. Even if you didn't want it too, you don't have any choices."

I shook up my head out of its senses, "how did you come up all to this? Where did you think all this through?"

He shrugged off like it wasn't just a piece of information he said. "I just came up with the thought of it. Pregnancy says it all. We're just like the fetus in the womb, they let us grow."

I took a deep breath trying to compose myself on everything we just talked about. If that what he's saying is correlative true, I wouldn't mind believing it because if that's really the case of it and the thought of it that these things happening may somehow are their way to contemplate us.

"You still wanna know the other one?"

I nodded, "hell yeah, of course."

"The miscarriage."

And so I'm gone into the shallow of what he said. "What would that be mean?"

"It is simple, if we don't stay strong and keep to what we're holding on, we'll die then but as we do it opposite, fight and stand strong we'll live. Because at the moment we bleed, we lose hope, we break apart, they win because, at this very moment, we thought we couldn't move forward."

"That's a lot more to take in but we what we do to live fight and we're not gonna fall unto our feet."

He patted my shoulder, "glad to meet you, Dylan. So brave and smart."

"Well... brave yeah, but I'll give you the smart one."

He laughed, "okay, I'll get it." He said but immediately we get in silence and observe those people whose approaching. We hide behind the trash bins and stay hidden until they pass. I don't know where the store he's talking about, but it is still sure we'll get there 'till the night comes.

"They're still there..." I said, and looking through a small opening that gives me the vision on those punk who are seemingly just standing there. When I look back at Al, he's gone but I found him sneaking away and he waves at me by following him, I don't know why he did that but I did what he said and follow him. "What are you doing?" I asked when I get to him.

"We'll take another route." He said.

"But that would make us get there longer than that road."

He looked at me, straight into my eyes. "Would you rather stand up in front of those guys or just take the option of getting out of their sight?"

I might have to choose the second one but I wouldn't let him go by his self, "whatever, Al, just take us their immediately."

"That's what are we doing." He said.

We took the other road and it's a narrow road than the other one and I think we'll get more of trouble here than just the punk on the other side, but Al is smart and I'm strong and I think that's good to do this thing. Maybe teamwork is really happening.