Chaos Rising by Kyla Stone

Author:Kyla Stone [Stone, Kyla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781945410444
Publisher: Paper Moon Press
Published: 2019-12-22T16:00:00+00:00

12

Liam inhaled sharply, precious oxygen flooding his system.

The infant lay in his hands, impossibly small, one tiny fist smaller than his thumb. His little feet kicked weakly. He was bluish, wrinkled, and covered in red blood and whitish goop.

He was moving, but he wasn’t making a sound.

Liam’s gut lurched. Was the baby breathing? He couldn’t tell.

He didn’t know. He didn’t know a damn thing.

Jessa’s words echoed in his head again. Rub his sternum gently to stimulate breathing.

He grabbed one of the white hotel towels and wrapped the baby inside it, careful to keep his face free. He cradled him in one arm and rubbed his chest with two fingers.

“Breathe, damn it, breathe!”

The infant opened his mouth and released a tiny, scratchy wail. His chest rose and fell.

He was breathing.

Liam let out his own relieved breath. He examined the child’s arms and legs, counted the toes, checked his back and chest, ran his fingers over his slick wet scalp, the fuzzy ears, the delicate scrunched face.

Everything was present and accounted for. No lacerations or bruises.

His nephew was born perfect.

Prisha came to the bed. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She wiped her face with the back of her arm and sniffed. “Don’t forget the umbilical cord.”

He’d almost forgotten she was there.

She held out her hands, and he placed the child in her arms. He took the knife and hesitated, staring numbly at the strange purplish rope connecting the baby to his dead mother.

“It needs to be tied off before being cut,” Prisha said. “I remember the doctors doing that with each of my own babies. Tie it between the baby and the cut. I’m not sure what to use…”

“I have something in my pack.” Liam cleaned his hands enough to grab a coil of paracord from the side pocket of his go-bag. He cut an eighteen-inch length and quickly knotted it around the umbilical cord, then used the knife to cut the cord a few inches beyond the knot.

His hands were shaking. Now that the child was safe, the adrenaline dump hit him hard.

Prisha knelt beside him and together they gently rubbed the newborn until he was clean and dry. His skin shone a light cinnamon brown. The hair that had been matted to his scalp was thick, black, and curly, already almost an inch long.

Prisha wrapped him neatly in a soft clean towel and handed him to Liam. “Newborns are so fragile. Be careful to support his neck and head.”

He stared at the tiny being in his arms, hardly daring to believe that it was real, that he’d done it. This terrible day had seen so much death and destruction. But here in his arms was raw and beautiful life.

It was almost too much to bear.

Prisha brought him a hand towel and the bowl of water to wash his hands clean. She hovered behind him. “What are you going to do now?”

“Hospital, I guess. Babies should be checked out by doctors.”

“It’s freezing outside and getting colder by the minute.”

He shrugged to belie the anxiety needling him.

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