Nineteen. The beginning of the end.

©Copyright to Beverly Guinevere Taff.

List of Characters.

Terry Harrington. Fugitive boy marked for compulsory transitioning.

Samantha, (Sam) First transitioned kid Terry meets on the streets.

Theodora (Dora) leader of the transitioned kid gang.

Jessica. (Jessie) The only natal girl in Dora’s gang.

Charlie Member of the transitioned gang.

Jan Another member of the transitioned gang.

Ron Café owner who lost his daughter to egg-
snatchers.

Doctor McTavish. Female paediatrician

Doctor Cummins Consultant Paediatrician

Sarah. Senior Midwife at the maternity unit

Dawn Very young trainee nurse.

Eleanor Jessica’s mother.

Diana Terri’s mother.

Part 10.

Ron frowned when Terri and Dora skulked in via the back lane.

“Jeeze! Thank heavens you’re here! I’m running out of crockery, Dora, can you start straight away with the dishwasher, Terri, waitressing, clearing tables, quickly, look! There’s more coming in as we speak.

Both girls were now old hands and they quickly plunged into the work. Within minutes, Ron was back on track and customers were getting served promptly though several of the earlier old regular customers had noticed the early panic. A couple of them looked up and grinned at Terri as she swept by to collect dirty dishes.

“Been shopping Terri?”

“Sort of,” she smiled as she expertly balanced the dishes on her tray and sashayed back to the service counter.

As always, admiring eyes followed her attractive figure then fell to chatting amongst themselves.

“Old Ron’s got a good un there.”

“Easy on the eye too.”

“That new girl’s quite attractive too.”

“Yeah, they make a good team and Ron’s got ‘em well trained.”

Thus the general mood in the café slipped back into it’s easy familiar ways until closing time. The girls finished their duties and slipped upstairs to freshen up while Ron got stuck into the nightly chore of cleaning the cooking range.

Feeling a little guilty for returning late, they descended downstairs back to the café and offered to help. He looked up and grinned.

“Not tonight girls, but I’d be really pleased if you helped me on Friday night. We can deep clean the range and I can still slip out to the pub; they’ve got an inter-pub dart’s match.”

“So long as we can slip out to the pictures or something later on.”

“We should be finished by six, plenty of time to scrub up. Pictures eh? You’re getting bold.”

“What?” Terri riposted somewhat annoyed. “Just two transitioned kids going to the pictures. There’s not much else for us, is there. Almost no girls to speak of and the vast majority if the transitioned kids not fancying men. Nobody asked us if we wanted to be castrated and wombified! We go the pictures because we’re safer in a crowd and we have to get a taxi home – And even that’s not a certain bet. There’s some weird taxi drivers out there these days.”

“Yeah,” Dora added, “ Just cos’ we can’t get pregnant the normal way they think it’s okay to screw us if they can get away with it. And they expect us to agree cos –

‘you caa-nt get pregnant luu-uve’

is what they whine; - as if we’re denying them some sort of god-given right.”

Ron fell silent, he was all too aware of the dangers his dear Lucy faced until the biggest danger of all took her.

“Well look after yourselves girls. I’m not responsible for what’s out there and I can’t pick you up tonight because I’ll be too drunk to drive when coming from the pub. Here’s some money for the taxi and a bit if you want to eat out, but take care!”

Both girls gave their beloved ‘step-dad’ a hug and a kiss then they went their separate ways.

The evening proved successful for Ron in-as-much as his pub team came second in the regional final while for Dora and Terri enjoyed the film but were glad to get a taxi home. There were too many hopeful uncut boys looking for any sort of sexual action.

“Look at them!” Dora sneered, “they’re like dogs sniffing for bitches.”

“Trouble is they think we’re bitches, look-out here come a pair of right bozos!”

Fortunately, the pair managed to grab a cab just seconds before the leering drunks came close enough to pester them.

“Where to girls?” The taxi-driver asked.

They gave him an address several blocks away from Ron’s café just so as to leave no clue of their final whereabouts being able to check if they were being followed. When he set them down, the girls stayed together for protection and to keep a look out. At the right instance they simply slipped into a narrow alley then doubled back down the rear lane and slipped into Ron’s back yard whilst invisible to anybody on the street. With their tried and tested manoeuvre successfully completed; they slipped into the upstairs bedrooms with their own private key.

“Night girls.” Ron called softly from his bedroom.

“Night Ron,” they chorused as they tip-toed past his door.

After the girls had showered, Dora asked hopefully if she could cuddle up to Terri for the night.

“Yes,” Terri allowed, “but no naughty stuff. The idea is to store it up for the fertility clinic.” She cautioned.

“Spoil-sport!” Dora protested insincerely. For she understood Terri’s situation with supplying the most fertile sperm she could.

“I wasn’t looking for sex. I just felt lonely, it’s been months since I’ve shared a cuddle and as for sex, well what with?”

Terri did a double take as she thought back. Since meeting up with Dora’s gang the consequences for the small band of transitioners had been disastrous.

Jessica had become pregnant and left the gang to become Terri’s sexual partner,

Sam had been captured and forcibly impregnated, she was now more or less living permanently in one of the hundreds of breeder dormitories.

Charlie had just recovered miraculously from Covid 21 and would now definitely follow Sam down the same forced pregnancy route.

Jan was taking years to recover and when she did she would most probably end up in those same breeder dormitories.

Dora was the only transitioner who was still free, if you could call being hunted like an animal, free.

And of course, Terri herself was being hunted even if the consequences of capture were now very different, it would still mean some sort of protective ‘lock-down’.

As the circumstances weighed in on her thoughts, Terri nodded sympathetically and she lifted her arm to invite Dora to spoon into her.

As the pair rearranged themselves to get comfortable, they suddenly felt a weight on their feet. Trixie, Jessica’s faithful Alsatian bitch refused to be left out of the contract.

Within minutes both ‘girls’ and bitch fell into a fitful sleep. Totally peaceful sleep rarely came to those for whom every police siren or unidentified noise could be the harbinger of assault or even capture.

ooo000ooo

The following morning, Sunday found Ron still asleep at ten o’clock when Dora stirred and disturbed both Terri and Trixie. The café, being a place that served mainly working people working locally, was closed on Sundays, giving the girls a day off.

Once they were awake, they made themselves some breakfast and Terri took some tea and toast up to Ron. It was a small kindly act to say ‘thankyou’ for what Ron had done to rescue her, Jessica and now Dora from the street.

“Where’re you off to so early girls?”

“Early! It’s nearly eleven o’ clock Ron!”

“But it’s Sunday, I rarely shift before twelve as you full know – my one lie in per week. And why are you dressed for the street?”

“It’s our disguise, people think we’re street kids and ignore us.”

Ron was about to caution them about the patrols but realised Dora was a master of ellusivity and concealment. She’d remained free on the street for over four years after having been forcibly transitioned at fourteen. Within weeks of her operation she had escaped from the breeding dormitories and gone AWOL and unimpregnated. That part had been relatively easy, lots of kids managed that. The hard part was staying hidden on the streets.

Terry and Jessica had been unbelievably lucky to land up with Ron, Dora had been more than lucky, she was a master of invisibility.

As they left the café, Terri picked up as sperm sample phyle and stuffed it into her little shoulder bag..

“What’s that for?” Dora asked.

“You’ll see, I’ve had a thought.

Dora shrugged and they walked briskly to the bus stop.

They caught a Sunday-bus into the city centre then another out to the hospital because the Sunday bus service across town did not run. Terri always dressed as a street kid when going near town because his fatherhood certificate was his ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card if he was stopped by a fertility patrol.
Dora had a forged pregnancy certificate which so far had fooled several of the fertility patrols when she was stopped.

They bought a coffee between buses in the city centre and cautiously watched the charity stall as the old lady still worked tirelessly to help street kids. Finally their bus arrived and they slipped away to revisit the nightingale hospital.

Once again they had to endure the invasive sterilisation procedures before trudging along the maze of corridors to find Charlie and Jan sharing a midday lunch in the large communal canteen. The moment Terri and Dora appeared, Charlie stood up and walked towards them grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Thought you were supposed to be ill?” Dora chided her.

“Not anymore, what is it with your friend Terri?”

“Me?” Terri replied with an air of innocence. “What do you mean - ‘what-is-it-with-me’?”

“The doctors want to see you. When you breathed into me yesterday, they reckon you’ve got some sort of antibodies in your lungs.”

Terri looked at Dora and they immediately realised they had blundered by coming to see their friends.

“We gorra’ go.” Dora declared softly.

Jan’s eyes widened with fear as she suddenly realised, there was something about her friend Terri. The doctor’s suspicions might be right.

“No wait” She begged hoarsely. “Do the same to me before you go.”

Dora, ever the street-wise expert nodded towards the doors that led outside into the extensive grounds.

“Over by the oak tree where I met you yesterday.” Dora ordered.

Jan and Charlie needed no further encouragement. Using long remembered street techniques, they waited for Terri and Dora to slip away then they casually left their table and Charlie pushed Jan’s wheel-chair to the large shady oak tree. There they sat seemingly enjoying the view before Terri and Dora appeared.

“Come here darling, let me kiss you goodbye.” Terri addressed Jan.

So saying she leant over Jan who lifted her face up and the pair locked lips,

“Breath in Jan.” Dora advised.

As she did so Terri puffed a violent breath of air down Jan’s trachea causing her to cough at the unexpectedly powerful invasion of her lungs.

“And again!” Dora ordered.

The same sequence invoked a feeble fit of coughing as Jan struggled to catch her breath.

“Now again,” Terri demanded as she took a huge breath and covered Jan’s mouth just as she was recovering her breath.

Terri’s explosive puff just as Jan breathed in caused Jan to lurch backwards with the unexpected invasion of her lungs and she went into a furious fit of violent coughing.

The violence of the coughing fit, this time caused Jan to expel a thick globule of mucous but this time, Terri was prepared. As Jan drew her first deep involuntary breath in two years Terri hastily removed her mouth and placed her hand over Jan’s wide open mouth and as the anticipated phlegm was violently expectorated Terri trapped a substantial portion of it in the cup of her hand.

Once again Dora was disgusted by the thick green gobbet in Terri’s hand.

“Got it!” Terri crowed victoriously

“Uuugh!.” Dora squirmed as even Charlie winced at the disgusting process.

Terri ignored them as she reached into her little shoulder bag and handed the empty sample phyle to Dora.

“Take the cap off,” Terri asked Dora who promptly did as asked

Then Terri scraped as much of the phlegm out of the cup of her hand as she could before she replaced the lid. Finally she put the phyle on the ground, took some tissues from her bag then cleaned up the mess.

“Take that sample to that sister, what’s har name. and explain what it is.” Terri instructed Charlie, “leave Jan here with us.”

“Sister Marjorie.” Charlie explained as she wrapped the phyle in another tissue and set off immediately towards the hospital block.

Terri turned to Jan in her wheel-chair.

“How d’ you feel babes?”

“My breathing’s easier, - much easier!” She enthused as she stood up unaided and stepped towards Terri.

“Yeah, well don’t overdo it girl. We’ve gorra go. Dora will keep in touch. Same arrangements as always, the cellar under the castle, Tuesday mornings.”

So saying, Terri and Dora slipped away to the exit and quietly scrubbed down before the skeleton medical team had even realised the girls had visited the hospital.

Inside the ward, Charlie found Sister Marjorie and she casually reached out to place the phyle in the sister’s hand.

“What’s this?”

“Have a look, - over there towards the oak tree. Who’s that pushing her own wheel-chair?”

Sister Marjorie squinted disbelievingly

“Is that Jan?”

“The very same.”

“How’s she doing that?”

“The same way I’m standing here right as rain.”

For a long second Sister Marjorie stared disbelievingly.

“Has that boy been back? The effeminate one?”

“The very same.”

“And did she do the same thing, the resuscitation thingy?”

“The very same, this time I was conscious and I saw the whole thing from end to end.”

“You should have called us. We need to speak to him.”

“Neither of them were willing. She did the resuscitation thing, gave me that phyle of phlegm and just left.

“You know their names.” Sister Marjorie confirmed.

“We both know their names; they just won’t say where they live or why they don’t want to meet you.”

“Something doesn’t add up here,” Sister Marjorie mused, “ they’re quite happy to do miracles and cure people, but they don’t want to meet any doctors.”

“Search me,” Charlie shrugged. “They’re street kids, what d’ you expect?”

“You saw the whole thing from beginning to end, can you describe it.”

“Well the first thing is it’s messy!” Charlie grimaced as she recalled the phlegm.

“Seemingly so, his face was a filthy site when he came here yesterday. Why do you keep referring to him as a she.?”

“She may dress as a street kid but under those filthy rags, I believe she’s a girl.”

“That could be a disguise.”

“She calls herself Terri and her friend Dora refers to her as a girl.”

“You know Dora and Jan from your street kid days don’t you?”

“Yes, but Terri seemed to just ghost in and out of our gang as it suited her. We never found out where she had her bash but when the gang was captured, Dora and the natal girl Jessie disappeared. The rest of us, well you know.”

“Do you know where the natal girl Jessie went?”

“No she just dropped out of sight. Ah! Here comes the miracle patient number two.”
Sister Marjorie stepped towards Jan as she pushed the wheel-chair in front of her like a giant ‘Zimmer’ frame..

“Can you walk without that?”

For and answer, Jan pushed the wheel-chair into the storage bay and walked un-aided towards the sister’s desk.

“Another miracle cure sister!” Jan grinned.

“You were supposed to ask her to come and see us.”

“I told them you wanted to talk to them but they weren’t willing. When I told them, they became nervous and wanted to leave.”

“But you let them do their resuscitation thing.”

“Would you refuse an offer like that after what happened to Charlie? Look at Charlie!”

Sister Marjorie let out an exasperated sigh.

“Was it painful?”

“The coughing thing was a bit frightening. I thought I was suffocating until she walloped that last big breath into my lungs. Then suddenly, all that stuff came free and I was able to cough it up. There was a lot more than that.” Jan pointed to the phyle on sister Marjorie’s desk.

“Yes, Charlie told me, and your breathing freely now?”

“Got more wind than Hurricane Hilda!”

“Can you give me a sample of your saliva.”

“Jeeze! Isn’t that enough?” She nodded again to the phyle.

“That’s your DNA, we’re trying to get his, or her DNA. Some of his saliva might had lodged in your mouth.”

Jan shrugged and leant forward with her mouth open.

“Go ahead.”

“Not here silly, down the labs, come on.”

They left immediately to trudge across the hospital site and as they walked, Sister Marjorie quietly marvelled at the vigour in the two transitioners progress. She found herself having to work to keep up. Eventually, they reached to laboratory block.

ooo000ooo

When they arrived at the labs Jan thought it was like a ghost town but Sister Marjorie explained.

“It’s Sunday darling. There’s only a skeleton crew. Come on, in here.”

As the entered a young technician looked up from his bench.

“Hello Marjorie, is this the girl with miracle cure?”

“No. That’s Charlie. This is Jan, she’s just had something similar with the same Ms X. We’re hoping you might get some DNA from Jan’s mouth or around her lips.”

“I’ll try, what’s this?”

“This is a sample of the stuff that Jan coughed up just like Charlie did yesterday. Maybe you can find some DNA in that as well though X didn’t get it all over her face. She caught it in her hand. See what you can do please and if you find a match then call the professor straight away.”

“It’s going to take a few hours.”

“We’ve got time.” Marjorie emphasised.

The young technician smiled as he relished a break from the routine and he quickly prepared the samples. Marjorie made herself useful by first making coffee then going for a stroll in the grounds with Charlie and Jan. When they returned the technician was displaying the results.

“Your Ms X is actually a Mr X and here is his DNA. Strike one for science.”

“Have you run it through the national data base?” Marjorie asked.

“We’d have to get police permission for that and the professor is the only one with the authority to request that.”

“Bloody typical!” Marjorie cursed. “It’s all bureaucracy and administration around here. What about the regional health board for the hospitals in Bristol and Somerset. You’ve got sufficient authority for that; they use that for stuff like bone-marrow transplants and matching eggs with sperm for implanting into transitioners.”

“I could try but it’s Sunday, they’ll be closed until tomorrow. I have advised the professor though, he’s on his way down but unless we access the police DNA computers it’s hardly worth him coming, until tomorrow that is.”

Marjorie became disgruntled as she contemplated the developments. Here they were seemingly sitting on an individual who’s saliva or breath could seemingly stop Covid dead in it’s tracks and that individual didn’t even want to play ball. As she kept running it through her overworked mind she suddenly realised that this individual must have known he was immune to Covid or something, or else why would he have specifically come to the Nightingale hospital and aimed specifically for Charlie and Jan.

Something didn’t add up so she approached Charlie and Jan again.

“You know these two guys well don’t you?”

“Yes. We told you that. Dora’s been here lots of times to see how we were faring.”

“But the other one; what’s his name. He’s never been here before has he.”

“It was his first time yesterday when he cured me.”
“So that’s the first inkling he might have had about his ability to cure Covid.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so though.”

“Why?”

“Well. When I spoke to the doctors last night they said he was almost fighting to get at my body after they removed the ventilator. He bruised the nurse’s arm as she tried to prevent him from trying to kiss me. Then it all happened and he seemed totally unsurprised, almost as though he was expecting it.”

“Do you think he knew about his curative ability?” Marjorie pressed.

“Well when I came to he was staring manically into my face and he had my phlegm all over his own face. It didn’t bother him one bit so he must have known he’s totally immune to Covid 21.”

“Yee-ess!” Marjorie mused. “And that alone is a tell-tale. Even the doctors in here don’t mess with the bugs, even after they’ve been proven to be resistant and they’re carrying antibodies.”

“You can never be sure if you’re immune to it.” The technician informed them. “There have been plenty of cases of re-infection, that’s the big difference between Covid 19 and Covid 21, - and the reason why Covid 21 is more dangerous.”

“Well we’ll soon find out, here’s the lab professor.”
“Good evening Sister, evening George, hello girls, what’s the big flap?”
“Mr X was here again but he didn’t report to the hospital visitors desk.” Sister Marjorie reported.

“What was he here for?”
“He’s cured Jan, the same way he cured Charlie yesterday. Seemingly, he knows that he’s able to cure people but he won’t come forward.”

“But you know him don’t you Charlie?”

“Yes; but I don’t know where he lives and he’s not telling.”

“Okay, I’ll alert the Police computer banks, he shouldn’t be that hard to find with all the street cameras and fertility patrols.”

“Don’t bet your life on it Professor,” Jan warned, “Our street gang boss Dora was with him and she’s never been caught by the fertility patrols in four years living on the streets.”

“Five!” Corrected Charlie, “It’s been nearly five years now, Dora’s nearly nineteen and she’s still not ever been impregnated. She escaped after they transitioned her and she’s lived rough since then. She’s clever.”

“Well, it’s in the hands of the police now, and the fertility patrols. Let’s just see how long it is before Mr X slips up.”

ooo000ooo