Born 01 - Born

Her teeth are gleaming white. It doesn’t suit the rest of her face. She steps into the water and lets it rain down on her.
    "It feels great, doesn’t it?"
    I glance back at the lady watching us. It makes me uncomfortable that she is there.
    "I remember my first shower, too."
    Her voice is hollow. She hasn’t been here since the beginning. She works here because she was captured. Her dark eyes give me a knowing look when she smiles under the space suit.
    "The soap is a special kind. It will wash anything off of you that you don’t want there. Do your hair too."
    I cringe. I can't help but wonder if she was one of the ladies who got to stay behind in the truck for a bit when it arrived at the farm.
    I pick up the bar of wrapped soap. I peel back the plastic. The girl watches me and does the same. I smell the soap and almost moan. It smells like lavender and tea tree. Of course it does. Natural cleaners for the body. Tea tree oil became a hot commodity when everything stopped being produced.
    I lather and scrub. At one point I sit on the floor and scrub my toes out. I don’t even care how bizarre I look. I scrub the wound on my leg, trying not to cry out in pain.
    Other women start to filter in. They cry with joy as the warm water washes them.
    Space suit points to a hallway. "This way." I walk with the girl holding my hand. I look back at the shower and miss it already.
    My nerves are shot. I need to find Anna. I need to protect the girl beside me. I need to find out how to get us all out without casualties. I might need one more shower before we escape.
    I'm dripping wet as I pad along the cold cement floor. I shiver. She takes us to a stack of towels in plastic. She passes them to us. I tear the plastic and pull a white terrycloth towel robe from it. I pull it on and instantly feel better. White terrycloth slippers fall onto the cement floor. I turn them over with my toes and look at the girl. She has the robe and slippers on, but on her, they are swimming.
    She grins and hugs herself.
    "Can she speak?"
    I shake my head. "I don’t know."
    "She isn’t yours?"
    I shake my head again. "No." I grin at the girl. "We found each other in the dark."
    Space suit walks through a weird shower. Her space suit is rinsed completely. She steps out and points. "Okay, this way, please." Space suit looks annoyed suddenly. We follow her through a huge white door, and we are in the white rooms and hallways again. The cement and stainless steel is gone. We walk in our plush clothes to a waiting room. "The doctor will be with you in a moment."
    I go and sit on the white plastic chair that looks formed. Everything sparkles. It feels sterile.
    The girl sits in the chair next to me and space suit leaves us there.
    There are no magazines like a real doctor’s office or windows.
    "I'm scared."
    I look at the little girl who apparently can talk. "Me, too."
    Two more ladies come and are seated next to us. I'd bet they're in their late twenties or early thirties if I had to guess.
    A chubby one smiles at me and speaks with a bubbly voice, "Has anything happened since you got here?"
    I shake my head.
    She frowns. "God. I hope this doesn’t take all day. I'm exhausted. I heard we get our own beds and rooms and food at every meal."
    The skinny lady next to her grimaces. She looks mean. When she talks, it doesn’t improve my assumption. "Did you see what they were doing to the women at the back of the truck? We aren’t here for a vacation. We're here to be raped and reproduce."
    I scowl. "Don’t." My eyes dart to the little girl.
    The mean-looking lady rolls her eyes and crosses her arms.
    The little girl smiles at me. I smile back.
    A man comes holding something in his hands. He looks like a doctor. He is older and has glasses on.
    He glances up at us and smiles. "You." He points at me.
    I look around at the others. They all look frightened. The girl grips me.
    "She wants to come with me," I say.
    He looks at the little girl. "It's your choice. She should be with the other healthy children."
    I hug her to me as I stand. "She comes with me."
    He shrugs and turns, walking down the white hallway.
    He walks to a room with a bed, just like my doctor back home had. There is another chair, a curtain, and a small desk. Everything is white. I feel like I can't actually see the depth of things because of all of the white.
    He points a hand toward the bed. "Have a seat. Are you sure you want her to see this?"
    I look up and frown. "See what?"
    "I