Los Angeles
9/10/00
It
was Amy’s seventeenth birthday; September 10th. She was still asleep in
her room as Serena layed the stuff she had traded several gallons of pure
water for. Thanks to Amy, it had become a kind of unlimited currency that
they could use to get anything they needed. Serena had managed to get Amy
a new set of clothes to replace the ruined ones and a half gallon of orange
juice, which Amy had been longing for.
The clothes were a little...odd, but Amy might like them. There was a black longsleeve shirt with a zipping collar and a pair of metallic silver pants. They’d go perfect with the black boots and belt Amy had managed to find. She’d definitely look pretty cool in them, and the pants would prevent easy access.
After Serena had fussed over them, she went to wake Amy up. “Ams, wake up.”
“W-what?” the girl was groggy.
“Wake up.” Serena tried to sound cheerful, “It’s your birthday!”
“Hmm? Oh.” and the blue-haired girl lay back down.
“Aren’t you excited?” her friend continued trying.
“What’s there to be excited about?” Amy’s eyes half shut in annoyance.
“I got you something.” Serena smiled, “Come look.”
“Okay.” Amy lifted herself off the office’s couch and threw the dirty sheets aside. Serena covered Amy’s eyes and walked her into the next room. “Surprise!”
Amy looked blankly at the clothes for a moment, then down at the short blue skirt and grey longsleeve tee-shirt she had worn for months, then back at the clothes. She reached out to touch them, almost praying that it wasn’t a dream that she had somehing new to wear. The shirt was vertically ribbed and felt very comfortable. The pants felt somewhat plasticy, but compared to the skirt, which was absolutely filthy and smelled like urine, they were like heaven. Overwhelmed with happiness, she choked. “Thank you, Serena.” and hugged her friend.
“So how did you get here?” Rei’s cousin Akiko asked as the family gathered around the table for lunch. Akiko Hino was about fifteen with shoulder-length black hair and correspondingly black eyes; a typical Japanese beauty.
“Well, Akiko-chan,” Rei responded, “I went to San Fransisco and found a community going up in a railyard. I stayed there for about a month or so while helping a man repair a steam locomotive. Then, I came here.”
“How are your friends?” Minoru asked.
“I know that Darien and Mina are dead.” she answered with a heavy sigh, “I don’t know about the others. But I have been having strange feelings lately. And I had a wierd dream last night.”
“Oh?”
“Hai.”
“Tell me about it.” Minoru was, after all, the son of a preist.
“It’s kinda strange.” Rei said, “I see my friend Amy, and her body is, like, energy or something. There’s this powerful white light coming from inside her head and then there’s another one, almost like a tiny spark, coming from her belly. I don’t understand it. But I just know something bad must have happened to her.”
“Shimatta.” Her uncle said, much to the consternation of her aunt, who gave him a glare. There weren’t really any curses in Japanese, but the term “shimatta,” when used with such emphasis had the rough equivalent of the English “damn.”
“Gomen, Reiko-chan.” Her uncle apologized, “I have no understanding either.”
“Hmm.” Rei smirked and continued eating.
“Are you okay?” Serena handed her the water and Amy managed to down a third of it before vomiting again.
“I’m just so dizzy.” Amy shook her head. “I’ve been like this every morning for the past three days but it always passes in the afternoon.” Amy swallowed another sip of water. “And there’s more.”
“What is it?” Serena asked.
“I’m late.”
It took Serena only a moment to understand what she meant by “late.” When she did, her hands immeditely clapped over her mouth. “Omigod! How long?”
“A week or so.” the aquabelle said. “Why me?” she though to herself, “And why now? Why not someone else? Why did it have to be me? I can’t do this. I can’t handle it.” Her eyes locked with Serena’s and the moon princess was able to read them. Amy couldn’t hold back any longer. “Serena, I’m scared.”
“I know.” Serena took her hand, “Can you walk?”
“I think so.” Amy said before swallowing back more vomit, “Why?”
“I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“No!” Amy protested, “They’ll want to examine me. They’ll have to touch me.”
“Ams, I’m touching you right now.”
“Not like they will.” Amy turned away, “They’ll poke at me, and stick their fingers in me and put q-tips where they shouldn’t go.”
“They have to Amy.” Serena pulled on her arm, “They need to make sure you’re alright.”
“But I’m not. I’ll never be alright again!” Amy began to cry again, “They’ll just violate me again. I won’t have any dignity after that.”
“Amy, you’re being childish!” Where had Serena heard that before? “Now come on, dammit! I’m not gonna let you sit here and feel sorry for yourself. I need to make sure you’re okay. I’m not gonna lose you, too!”
“Okay, I’ll go.” Amy said, “But I want you with me. Promise?”
“Promise.”
They were finally on the main avenuve to the hospital, which looked very tall and white compared to the crumbled and grey surroundings. It struck Amy that this was the hospital where her mother had worked. “No way.”
“What is it?”
“That’s my mum’s hospital.” Amy almost smiled. The people all knew her in there. They would take good care of her. Without Serena, she continued forward.
“No kidding. Hey, wait!” Amy did not stop as Serena followed her. Instead, she broke into a run, despite the heavy black shirt and silver pants. Once at the doors, she stopped. As usual, they opened for her. She walked into the lobby.
It was almost the same. There were some blackened places and cracks in the wall but the air inside was still the cool, dry air she was used to. The blue-haired girl looked around her. Some people were standing up and gazing at her in awe.
“Amy!” Serena jogged through the door, panting.
“Amy?” one silver-haired woman said, “Amy Anderson?”
“Yes, that’s me.” Amy turned to the woman. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she gasped. “Mrs. Rothby?”
“It is you!” Grace Rothby took Amy in a hug. “We all though you were dead. Your poor mother’s been hoping you would come in.”
“My mother?” Amy looked up, shocked. “Here?”
“Yeah.” Grace put her arm around her shoulder, “Come on, she’ll be so surprised.”
“Are these the x-rays of the Collins kid?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Um, Dr. Hesty wanted to see them.”
“Okay.” And she let him race off with them. She then turned from the nurses’ station down the hall into second floor east. She checked rooms 202 and 207 to make sure these patients were okay. Inspite of the dammage to the city, the hospital was busy. It was the only place were injuries and sicknesses could be properly treated and with the late outbreak of typhoid due to most people drinking dirty water, it had become overrun with patients. It wasn’t all bad, since they paid in supplies, but it kept Diane on her feet and thinking about anything other than her daughter.
“Diane!” she heard someone call, “Diane!”
“Can it wait, Grace?”
“I don’t think you’ll want it to.” the reply came, “there’s someone here to see you.”
Impatient, the doctor looked up. For a moment, she thought the long hours were affecting her mind, but when she blinked and Amy was still there, she rushed forward. “Amy! Oh, my God.”
“Mother!” her daughter cried as they embraced.
“Where have you been?”
“Serena and I have been just surviving.” Amy told her as much of the story as she could without saying anything of the Sailor Scouts. “Mom, I have some really bad news.”
“What is it Amy?”
“I was raped and I think I might be pregnant.”
“Oh my Lord.” her mother stepped back. Time to be professional. “Are you sure?”
“I’ve been having morning sickness for the past two days and my period should have started a few days ago but it hasn’t.”
“Well, in any case I need to take a look at you.” Diane took her daughter by the arm and led her to a room with Serena trailing behind them. “Here,” she showed her daughter the bed, “I need you to take off your clothes and lay down.”
“No, I can’t do that.” Amy backed away, ashamed, “I don’t want to be vulnerable.”
“Amy, I’m your mother. I won’t hurt you.” At this, Amy backed away even further and hung her head. Tears began running slowly down her cheeks.
“I don’t want to.”
“Come on, Ams.” Serena said softly, “Your mom’s worried about you. And she’s a doctor. You can trust her.”
“Please, Amy. I need to make sure you weren’t injured.”
Amy sniffled, then nodded. “I’d like it if Serena went out of the room.”
Serena raised her eyebrow. “Are you sure? Earlier you said you wanted me here?”
“I know but this is between me and my mum.”
“Okay.” and she left, closing the door after her. Quickly but cautiously, Amy yanked her new shirt over her head and then took off her shoes and pants before laying down.
“You’re not mad at me are you?” she asked her mother.
“No.” Diane was taken aback, “Why would I be?” To this her daughter replied with a shrug.
Amy closed her eyes while her mother began probing her just as she had feared. To some of the thrusts and jabs, she would twist her face in discomfort or groan. On a certain test, she shot up and screamed, “Ouch! That hurts!”
“Sorry.” and her mother stopped. Amy lay back down and her mother began to ask questions as she continued with a pelvic exam.
“Did it hurt?”
“Yes. It was a kind of tearing pain.”
“Is there any pain now?”
“Aside from what you just did? No ma’am.”
“Any pelvic aches?”
“No.”
“Did you have to urinate afterwards?”
“Actually, no. I lost control of my bladder before he did it and didn’t have to go.”
“Has there been any blood in your urine since?”
“None that I’ve seen.”
“Okay, here.” her mother tore the gloves from her hand and handed Amy a gown. Thankful for the clothes, she pulled it on. Next, she was given a cup and pointed to the bathroom, where she was told to pee in it, which she did. The cup was collected by a nurse who was happy to see Amy and taken to be tested. Next, Diane drew three vials of blood from her daughter’s arm.
“Okay, Amy, I’m gonna have these tested too to make sure you don’t have any infections.”
“Alright, mum.” Amy said as she got dressed. “How long will they be?”
“Well, the bloodwork we’d usually send off to the CDC in Atlanta, and that took a week or so, but we’ll have to test ‘em here. I got some priority on it so we’ll have ‘em back in an few hours.”
“Okay.” Amy nodded. Mother and daughter were silent for a long time.
“Are you doing alright? Are you eating enough?”
“I wasn’t doing very well for a while after the boat blew, but with my water distilling machine, I’m doing pretty good now.”
“So you have fresh water? Not any of that nasty stuff that most people drink?”
“No ma’am.”
“Well, that’s good I guess.” Diane nodded and sighed. “Amy, I’m very sorry.”
“What for?” Amy asked.
“For not being there to protect you. I should have gone to look for you but there were so many injuries, so many wounded and dying.”
“It’s okay. At least we’ve found each other now.”
“But under these circumstances... I’m just so sorry.”
“It’s alright mother. I’m not a child anymore. I’ve managed.”
“Amy, some sicko raped you.”
“I know that! And I don’t want to talk about it.” the aquabelle snapped, “It wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”
“How was it your fault?” Diane raised her voice, shocked that her daughter thought this.
“I don’t know. You always told me that that skirt was too short.” Amy shrugged, “He had an easy time with it.”
“Baby, it’s not your fault.” Dr. Anderson came near Amy.
“Then why did he take me and not Serena?” Amy asked, “She’s a whole lot more beautiful than I am. It was because she was wearing pants and I was in a slutty skirt that offered easy access.” Amy turned away from her mother angrily to look out the window. The smashed and broken world she saw out there softened her again and she turned back. “Is Father Rawling still in the chapel?”
“Um...” Diane thought, “yeah. I think so.”
“Thanks.” And she disappeared out the door.