The rest of the survivors had slipped back into a quagmire of frightened mourning; Salina, Clyde, Bonnie, and Jennifer the most affected. They all recognized that Salina and Clyde needed a great deal of time. The respite they’d felt on the night they’d rescued Hudson was now a distant memory. They prayed that in their grief they’d be able to find their way back to one another.
Bonnie and Jennifer were another matter. Both were healthy young girls with long lives ahead of them. Nature had a way with youth. The problem with Jennifer was that she was in need of professional help. They could only speculate on the tendrils’ healing of the mind, a much more complicated process. Judging from the uncorrected damage to Baby during his death and subsequent mind transfer, the survivors speculated avidly on the finite powers of the Womb.
Dezi and Peter devoted themselves to the task of supporting Bonnie, who still refused to visit Tobi’s old herd. The elephant behavior was not what one would call normal, but their restlessness had abated with small signs that one of the juvenile females might be ready to assert a claim to mini-matriarch.
The herd’s excitement over the impending birth of the first calf since they’d left Africa boded well. Nothing brought a herd of elephants together more than a calf in their care. Calves became so important to the mental health of a herd that in the wild, some older elephants were known to attempt kidnappings of babies from other herds. The few calves they had now were so well adjusted to the Hive that everyone hoped they would more than make up for the missing Tobi.
Today, Ginger Mae found herself late for the count in the cat and bear bathing cave. As her body became healthier, her muscles developed more strength. She no longer had difficulty controlling their enthusiasm at her appearance. She now received less bumps and bruises, and had learned how to bob and weave as they jumped up at her for their brand of kitty love. Her fondness for the majestic cats ripened and deepened. Caesar’s constant presence had served to desensitize her to their frightful power.
As she entered their cave, she took note of Bonnie and Peter playing with the lion cubs, the mother nowhere to be seen. She breathed deeply the rich aroma of wet felines as she began her count. An occasional chuff from a bear, or a low roar, told her all was well as they played hide-and-seek among the boulders and jutting outcrops over the water, soaking her to the skin as usual. Oh well, it’s only water.
As she finished the count, she could hear laughter floating along the water’s edge. Glancing back at Bonnie and Peter, she wondered at their relationship. She’d been aware of its budding months ago and had witnessed its miraculous effect on Peter. She reflected on his tale of a lonely childhood when they’d dated. She could certainly understand the attraction Bonnie would represent. Almost a return to the childhood he’d missed out on. A chance to develop a few of the social life skills we learn as children that had eluded him. He would be surprised to know she was happy for him.
Ginger Mae’s thoughts returned to the time she first met Peter, smiling inwardly. She hadn’t initially been attracted to the nebbish lawyer, but when he’d smiled, his face had transformed. He had that boyish, clear-eyed honesty—almost an innocence—compared to the world she was from. She shook her head, reminding herself that those days were long gone, leaving only the scars they all shared from their encounter with Armoni.
She decided to stroll over to the lion’s pen to check off the cubs, having located their mother on a rock ledge within eye sight of the pen. Peter looked up as she approached, a subtle tightening around his eyes and the flat smile serving as a reminder of their current cordial but cool relationship.
“Hello, Ginger Mae.” He stood up, leaving Bonnie flat on the ground with two of the four cubs stretched across her back and entangled in her hair. Teeth and claws mauled her unmercifully as the happy cubs moaned in ecstasy.
“HHHi . . . hey, don’t leave me down here. Get these monkeys off my back. Come on, you two.” Bonnie flayed her arms back awkwardly, trying to knock the now fifty-pound cubs off her back. Breathing heavily she rolled over, dumping them to the ground and taking her head with them as a paw remained tangled in her hair.
“Ow . . . owowoo.”
Peter laughed and leaned down to help her disentangle.
“It’s nice to see you having fun, Bonnie.” Ginger Mae gave her a warm smile.
“Thanks.” Bonnie eyed her from head to toe. “I wish I could say the same to you. I guess the cats have been at you again?”
Ginger Mae smiled ruefully at her drenched and sodden appearance. “I don’t mind. It’s become fun for me. They don’t mean anything by it.”
Conversation stopped as Peter just stood there wordlessly. She began to feel the strain when shouting came from the other side of the pond near the entrance. They could see lovebirds Gloria and Billy with two of the keepers, waving their hands. As the threesome made their way over, Ginger Mae saw excitement and grins splitting their ruddy faces.
“Come on, come on . . . ya gotta see.” Gloria grabbed her arm.
“Come on, we don’t want to miss it. Everyone else is over there.” One of the keepers put his hands together in supplication.
“It is the baby. She is coming. The baby ele is coming.”
As they were swept up in the exultant tide of observers, Peter murmured to Bonnie, her posture stiff and resistant, confusion in her eyes. “You okay, kid? You don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”
“Will you stay with me if I don’t go?”
“Ha, ha, ha, ha. Heck no. I want to be there for this. The whole Hive is probably there now. Come on, you can do it.” With those words they hustled Bonnie down the rock corridor to the elephants, barging in as the calf made the beginnings of her momentous slide out of the snug shelter of young Namba’s womb.
They were greeted by cheers as the other survivors spotted Bonnie.
Johno rushed to her side. “I am so happy to see you here, little one. Your friends have missed you.”
The celebration dampened as Bonnie surveyed the herd, the elephants leaving the side of the birthing mother to barrage Bonnie with their welcoming trumpets and questing trunks. Johno held her tight as they threatened to knock her over with their exuberance. Ginger Mae saddened as Bonnie wiped away a tear, valiantly attempting to rise to the occasion. Everyone could see her trembling. Ginger Mae reached out to squeeze Bonnie’s hand. She nodded gratefully.
Soon everyone’s attention focused back on the calf still struggling to break through the last barrier of its journey, to let gravity announce its arrival with the customary thud to the ground. They made themselves comfortable around the little herd, some finding the piles of browse from the growing fields, others just sitting on the cold stone floor.
Making their way in slowly for the benefit of the perennially pregnant Kenya; Scotty, Chloe and Kane joined the crowd. Of course, with them came the accompanying posse of excited dogs. Kane placed the chair he carried from the kitchen in a good spot for Kenya. Ginger Mae looked around, failing to see Netty, Daisy, Baby and Echo. Dismissing them from her mind, she watched Kenya try to adjust herself to a comfortable position.
“All right, all right. Stand back.” Kenya waved her demanding arms to the crowd of survivors. “I don’t want nobody to get in my way, understand, chickeys? Ain’t no way this big mama is gonna have her baby without me catching every move. If she can do it, I sure as hell can too. Now watch out.”
It took another hour before they were rewarded with the sight of the Hive’s first elephant calf. Everyone oohed and aahed as the baby dropped with the expected thud. Their clapping hands frightened the skittish mom as Johno hushed them, explaining his concern that the mom now had no experienced female model from whom to learn how to care for her calf. They couldn’t afford to have the young mom reject the infant. It needed that critical drink of its mother’s first milk to ingest the lifesaving colostrum that would pass on precious antibodies to the newborn. Without them the calf would not survive when they resurfaced. It would be protected by the b
enefits of the Hive, but that would cease when their tenure underground ended.
“I think it is time for everyone to return to their day. Mama needs to be stress free, now,” Johno decreed, his face ashy and tired. They all turned as the wobbly calf made a squeal; its tiny trunk, hardly longer than a man’s arm, searched for its milk as it struggled to keep its balance on the hard rocky floor, getting no co-operation from Namba. To everyone’s dismay the confused young mama ran to the fringe of the herd, looking back at the calf as if it were a foreign object. Conversely, the rest of the herd met the baby with excitement and trunk sniffing, examining its pliant, wrinkly skin from head to toe. Sadly, none could give the hungry calf what it so desperately needed from its own mama.
Ginger Mae watched Bonnie carefully as she detected further wretchedness weighing the teen down, the dejected air of the keepers infecting everyone. Just what nobody needs right now.
Suddenly, the air filled with feathery flutters as Echo and Baby decided to put in an appearance. They alighted on the floor near the elephants, delighting the pachyderms that had missed their playful buddies. Barney broke from the crowd to scurry as fast as his legs would take him, asserting his usual place at Echo’s side, the minion’s hand dipping possessively around Barney’s neck.
As everyone gawked at the creatures, in walked Netty and Daisy. They approached slowly, Daisy holding a ribbon around the neck of a newborn baby elephant, considerably more stable on its legs than the first calf. In silence, they made their way to the herd and the survivors. Netty wore a satisfied smile as Daisy danced her way across the rock floor with the strange tiny calf in tow.
“Surprise,” she shouted, her glee uncontainable. The new calf waved its trunk wildly, sounding little squeals and snorts. The herd froze in place, intent on the strange second calf, which began to scratch at the floor with its miniscule legs. As it let loose another ear-shattering squall, the herd made a mad rush to its side, trunks a-quiver, accompanied by the deep rumblings they employed to communicate.
Ginger Mae could feel the timbre of the rumblings in every fiber of her body. Wearing a look of astonishment, Johno approached the herd. The elephants parted as he approached, leaving the baby to stand alone fearlessly. It lifted its baby head into the air, its trunk sounding out an improbable screech that pierced Ginger Mae’s eardrums. It rested then rushed headlong for the dumbfounded Johno, who squatted as the strange baby calf threw itself at him to bowl him over. The unexpected calf eagerly ran its trunk over every surface of Johno’s body and, inexplicably, into the small empty pocket sewn into the head keeper’s shirt high on his shoulder where he was known to hide treats for only one special elephant.
Bonnie stepped from the crowd, her head pitched in puzzlement, her mouth moving, but with no words. The calf sniffed the air with its trunk . . . searching . . . smelling Bonnie as it issued an identical screech, blasting forward to throw itself against the young, astonished teen.
Daisy skipped her way over to Johno and Bonnie. Jumping up and down her face lit up with knowing excitement. “So . . . what do you think?”
Johno and Bonnie frowned, shaking their heads, clearly at a loss.
Netty approached soundlessly, sweeping her delicate arm to rest her hand on the inexplicable infant. “Tobi.”
Daisy clapped her hands together and spun around. “I’m very sure you’re surprised. I have learned to keep secrets, right Netty?”
Netty beamed at the child and turned back to the flabbergasted survivors.
Ginger Mae felt a jealous twinge deep in her belly as she observed her child with the imposing Netty. She glanced at Bonnie to discover a slow dawning on the teen’s face.
“You . . . cloned . . . Tobi.” It was a statement not a question. “You cloned Tobi. My God!” Bonnie’s voice hushed with awe. Kneeling down by the exuberant calf she wrapped her hands around its neck and cried.
Johno stood tall, his eyes wet with tears, as he made the sign of the cross.
Netty quirked a golden eyebrow. “I’ll let that pass, in view of the circumstances.” She turned to Bonnie. “My dear child. Do not expect too much from Tobi. Yes, all her memories are intact. But she has a severe displacement dysmorphia. She has not had the luxury of a century to . . . adjust . . . as we have. And we had the added advantage of looking much the same as when we died.” She fluttered a wing. “At least mostly. Those that die before we can reach them must be reborn. Cloned as you call it. Her brain is much more complex than one such as Barney’s. A dog has no great perception of self, so adjusts quite readily. An elephant, especially one as old as Tobi, is a complex sentient being. She has a very clear awareness of whom and what she is. Or . . . what she was. She is now the size of an infant and will have some trouble adjusting when the pleasure of being reunited with her herd wears off. She will undoubtedly act out.”
Netty turned to Johno, giving him a small smile. “Just prepare for it. I know you realize extra TLC goes a long way. ”
And with that pronouncement, Netty swept out of the cave, Baby fluttering at her side, leaving the survivors with their mouths hanging open as usual.
Chapter 14
It took another month, but the survivors in the Hive finally began the healing process. Bonnie’s distraction with the new calves and her obvious joy at Tobi’s resurrection helped put the beginnings of a smile back into the heart of Salina as she watched her only remaining natural child come back to life.
The fear of the Kreyven diminished as the survivors accepted Netty’s assertions, that as long as they continued to work in the best interest of the creatures, there would be no reason for it to appear. Many felt Netty’s behavior that night in the small cavern where they’d found the men made the beautiful, remote Elder more human . . . more identifiable. It served to unite them once again back to the former camaraderie the Hive had enjoyed before the introduction of the deranged Seth.
Clyde found himself at a loss with Jennifer, who really needed the company and support of a female in her life. He began including Salina in his plans for his granddaughter, hoping a relationship with the older Bonnie would be a benefit. Salina welcomed the role, but everyone could see how deeply Clyde’s defection had wounded her. But . . . time heals all wounds and God knows . . . er . . . Womb knows, they had plenty of that in store for them.
Scotty made an effort to get the facts from Baby and Echo regarding the three men in the cave, discovering that Baby had simply done it out of hatred for the men who had murdered his family. He had felt he was honoring his love for Netty and Wil. As the truth of Baby’s motives circulated the Hive, many agreed they would have wanted to do the same thing had it been their families. Some deeper thinkers privately understood the similarity of emotions that undoubtedly evolved from their early ancestors: the minions themselves.
Johno had wonderful news at dinner one evening, as he reported the presence of two more expectant moms: the female grizzly and one of the camels. He also reported unusual behavior in one of the turtles that led him to believe it must be a female looking for the proper material in which to build a nest. On consultation with Wil, he got permission to remove sand from the bottom of the elephants’ pond to build a nesting area for the frustrated turtle before she decided to use the elephants’ browse pile, which would spell disaster for her eggs.
Netty, Abby and Ginger Mae finally worked out their territorial issues regarding Daisy’s ‘education’, with Ginger Mae’s admonishment that if she caught them touching her daughter with anything other than a loving hand, she ‘would rip every feather from the backs of their wings and pound Netty’s crystal horns to nubs with her own sledgehammer’. Daisy renewed her studies with a reluctant Kimir joining in to further his more traditional education.
Kenya ramped up her campaign to convince Netty that the Womb must help her deliver her baby, to no avail. Mealtimes often became a comedy hour with Kenya’s tears, Johno’s consoling and Crystal’s demands for Kenya to shut up. Kane smiled unabashedly through it all.
Ginger Mae noticed that Captain Cobby spent more time looking into the blissful Karen’s eyes then he did searching for a glimpse of Abby. A man can only take so much before he gives his all to the available female who’s asking for it.
Her ministrations to the stranger, Hudson, had become non-eventful. At least he was still alive, but it was clear to her that his recovery would take an indeterminable amount of time. She’d been able to eliminate the stink that emanated from his body and it was clear his body functioned well; converting calories into fat had made him look human again. But other than the superficial cosmetic changes she made note of, the man lay unresponsive.
And the wondrous Echo. She never took her eyes off Chloe as the young girl continued to guard her position in Scotty’s life with jealousy.
And in the background . . . always . . . the relentless, iconic Siberian tiger, Caesar, who never, ever took his eyes off The One.
Epilogue