The Ravaging

Chapter Nineteen

We have been sitting in this room for a while now, ever since they gave us all hospital robes to wear a few hours ago, and it is becoming unnerving. The room gives off a fake sense of calm, the walls a cream color with pictures of families smiling. The happiness of the families in the photos clash with the tension in the room, all of us sitting on edge.

Delaney is the only one who seems to not be on high alert, sitting back in a chair and reading an outdated magazine that had been stacked on the table in front of him. The brothers are whispering to each other, their eyes flitting around the room as they try to take everything in. Finn keeps me close to his side, his arm wrapped around my waist and Viola sleeping against his chest.

Delaney eventually looks up from the magazine he is reading, eyes looking in between all of us. With a long sigh, he sets the magazine down, not speaking until all of us are focused on him.

"The way this works is that they will take us into an exam room, where they will draw some blood. Using these samples, they will determine which group you belong in: helpers or fertiles."

"What's the difference between the two?" I ask, already dreading his answer.

Delaney sits back in his chair. "The thing with this disease is that almost everyone has been affected by it. It spread fast, and anyone not immune became infected within a week of it reaching their area. Now, the only people alive are those who are completely immune to the disease, or those who are only carriers of the gene that makes them unaffected."

"What's the difference?" Jacob asks.

"It's like the genes for eye color," I say, shifting so that I am in a more comfortable position. "If you have a parent with blue eyes and a parent with brown eyes, you are more than likely to have brown eyes, since it is a dominant trait. But, you are also a carrier for blue eyes, even if you don't have them.

"So, some people are completely immune to the disease, meaning they got the trait from both parents. But, some people are just carriers, meaning they got the trait from only one parent."

"Exactly," Delaney says, looking impressed.

"Nursing student," I say, answering his silent question.

"So, what you're saying is that everyone who is still alive has some combination of traits that make them immune to this disease that is wiping most of us out."

Delaney nods his head. "Exactly."

"Does this have anything to do with why we were captured?" Danny asks.

"It has everything to do with it," Delaney answers. "They are trying to develop a cure and have been ever since this disease broke out more than a year ago somewhere on the other side of the globe.

"They have tried all different types of techniques, probably more than I know of, but they seem to be set on gathering a certain type of stem cell."

"Oh no," Finn grumbles, and I whole heartedly agree. Stem cells are very rare in adult bodies, being most prominent in younger bodies, seeing as they are undifferentiated cells.

Delaney gives Finn a stiff smile, his face one of disgust. "Yeah."

"Someone explain, please," Danny says, looking in between the three of us with wide eyes.

We exchange looks before Finn lets out a long sigh. "It means that they are more than likely trying to collect the most useful and abundant type of stem cells: perinatal stem cells."

"Perinatal?" Jacob says, eyebrows scrunched together. "Does that mean they have something to do with babies?"

I nod my head. "Exactly. Perinatal stem cells are the ones found in the umbilical cord blood and the amniotic fluid. That's why some people save their baby's cord blood, just incase they have some type of serious illness where they might need their stem cells."