Regina looked at the woman near the chemical bath, who looked up and locked eyes with her. Regina said, “It’s not possible.”
“I agree,” said Chauncy, offering Regina a chilled bottle of water. “The other thing that’s not possible is that most of the women claim they have not had relations with a man, many say they never have had relations at all and others, not within the proper date range for their pregnancy. These are religious women for the most part.”
The pregnant woman at the chemical bath had not taken her eyes off Regina. Other women had stopped their work and were looking up at the office as well. Sam and Regina moved to the other side of the room, near the monitors, and she drank deeply from the bottle of water.
Regina asked, “Has the medical staff on site examined or treated the women?”
Chauncy pulled a rolling chair out to face Sam and Regina. “Yes. Dr. Hamblin has examined many of the women and is providing prenatal care. Our facilities are limited, but basic care is available.”
“I’d like to speak with him,” Regina said.
Sam, who had appeared deep in thought, interjected, “When is the rest of our team supposed to be here?”
Chauncy frowned. “The other car should have brought them here already. I will have that checked out.” He nodded at one of the two blue-shirted security guards in the room, who clicked on a headset and started talking. Chauncy turned to Regina and said, “Dr. Hamblin’s a woman, and as you might imagine, her days this week have been completely filled. I could have you taken to her, but I doubt she would be able to break away any time soon to come up here.”
Regina had an odd feeling sweep over her, like she was being watched by a predator. She looked over her shoulder and saw that more than a dozen women were looking at them in the office. No, looking at her. She wished Sonya or Kristine were there so she was not the only woman in the group. “I am nervous to find my way around the facility. I’ve never been to the medical office. Can you or one of the guards take me?”
“I can send you with Tellez.” He motioned to the taller of his guards, a Hispanic man in his upper twenties with long arms, big hands and the kind of nose that had been broken multiple times. “But I better wait for the rest of your team.”
“I’ll wait, too,” Sam said with an apologetic look on his face.
Regina finished off her water bottle and stood, looking at Tellez and motioning toward the door to leave. “Have you offered them maternity leave?”
Chauncy nodded. “They refused. Every one of them. They also refused to be transferred off the floor to easier jobs,” he said as Regina moved to leave the room.
When the door to the office clicked shut behind her and Tellez, Regina felt vulnerable. Tellez stood over six foot four, and weighed over 250 pounds, but she felt like she was wading into a rough ocean with only water wings to keep her afloat. She looked at the thermostat at the bottom of the stairs and saw the temperature on the floor was ninety degrees. “Is it always this warm?”
Tellez’s voice was surprisingly high, and melodious, “Not before this week. We are accommodating the requesting consensus of the workers. We used to keep it under seventy-five.”
Regina was incredulous. “The pregnant women want it to be ninety degrees?” She couldn’t imagine it. When she had been pregnant with Jess, she had never wanted the temperature above seventy. It was the only time in her marriage that she and Sam saw eye-to-eye on the thermostat.
“Nope. The women wanted it set at one hundred, but the men begged for it to be lower.” Tellez led them through the main corridor on the floor that went from the front to the back of the open room.
“You could fit a football pitch in here. Maybe two or three,” Regina said, just wanting to talk to keep her focus off all of the pregnant women eyeing her with blank stares, like dolls’ eyes.
“Eight, actually.” Tellez seemed unaffected by the staring women. Of course, they were looking at Regina, not him.
Her eyes lingered on some of the men. They looked scared, and soaked with sweat. Each had a tall water bottle, which seemed woefully inadequate to the task of cooling and keeping the men hydrated. The smell of sweat filled her nose; not just any sweat, but tainted with the pungent smell of anxiety. The women, on the other hand were dry and unsoiled. The two minutes it took to reach the back of the room and the doorway to access the medical hall seemed like a whole season.
The hall back to the medical office was like the halls coming into the factory, dark and made of polished concrete, with lights coming on only for the time Regina and Tellez walked through each section.
The sounds of screaming ahead drew Tellez into a run. It was a woman’s voice, but Regina could not make out any words. She hurried after the big man, but he moved like a track star, and she did well to mark the turn he made ahead, and the next. The screams grew louder as she approached a doorway that Tellez had entered several seconds before she arrived.
The receiving room was full of women sitting on chairs and couches, some reading magazines and one knitting a baby sweater. All were very pregnant, and all looked up at her. Several smiled and then returned to what they had been doing. Regina huffed loudly to regain her breath and looked around incredulously. There was no sign that the women had just heard blood-chilling screams from the room behind the reception desk. No receptionist sat at the desk, but a sheet for sign-ins sat next to a feathered ink pen.
Moments later, the receptionist (as Regina would later learn) and a nurse, both pregnant, walked Tellez out of the back room. The nurse, a Hispanic woman with sharp, angry eyebrows said, “Come back to the examination room again and you can wait in the hall.”
“I came because I heard screaming.” Tellez’s hands shook and his eyes opened wide.
“It’s stopped, so don’t worry,” the nurse said challengingly. “All is fine.”
Regina was startled to see the large man cowed by the nurse. Yet, even a lion will back away from hyenas when the numbers are this unfavorable. She was surprised to see the eyes of every woman on Tellez, loathing exuding from the room in general. Fear blossomed in her and spread like fire, and by the look in Tellez’s eyes, he felt it even more strongly. Regina’s guts roiled with anxiousness.
The examination room door opened and out came a tall woman with more gray than blond in her hair, cut stylishly off the shoulder. Her doctor’s coat had blood on the sleeves, but she wrapped her arms around a swaddled bundle in a blanket. Part of Regina wanted to see the baby in the swaddle, but another part of her was terrified by what she might see.
The woman handed the baby to the nurse and nodded in greeting to Regina. “I’m Dr. Hamblin. I’m booked this afternoon, but I can see you in the morning.” She was pregnant too, though not quite as close to delivery as the women in the room.
The nurse went to the back room with the bundle, making loving sounds and doting on the newborn as she went. It was a stark contrast from the greeting she had given Tellez. He looked like a cat in a room full of sheep-sized rats.
Regina said, “I don’t need an appointment, and I won’t be here in the morning. I just need to ask a few questions. My husband is Sam Jenkins, and I’m one of his lead chemists, Regina Jenkins. We are here to make sure Phase One is on track for release.”
Dr. Hamblin put blood stained hands behind her back and said, “Phase One is on track. Nothing will stop it now.” The women in the room nodded. “I have little time for questions, but you may ask a couple before I see Murian.” She nodded fondly to a brown-haired woman with large green eyes, sitting on a stiff-backed wooden chair. Her eyes looked like they belonged on a doll.