“Never say never,” says Ivory Bill. “Their brains are more malleable than Crake intended. They’ve been doing several things we didn’t anticipate during the construction phase.”
“Maybe it’s someone in our own group,” says Swift Fox. “Someone who wanted sausages.”
There’s an uneasy, guilty laugh round the circle. Then a silence. “So. What next?” says Ivory Bill.
“What next is, do we cook it or not?” says Rebecca. “Suckling pig?”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” says Ren. “It would be like eating a baby.” Amanda starts to cry.
“My dear lady, what’s all this about?” says Ivory Bill.
“I’m sorry,” says Ren. “I shouldn’t have said baby.”
“Okay, cards on the table,” says Rebecca. “Hands up, anyone here who didn’t know that Amanda’s pregnant?”
“I appear to be the only one left in gynecological ignorance,” says Ivory Bill. “Perhaps such intimate feminine material was considered unfit for my elderly ears.”
“Or maybe you weren’t listening,” says Swift Fox.
“Okay, so that’s clear,” says Rebecca. “Now I would like to open up the circle, as we used to say at the Gardeners … Ren, you want to do this?”
Ren takes a breath. “I’m pregnant too,” she says. She begins to sniffle. “I peed on the stick. It turned pink, it made a smiley face … Oh God.” Lotis Blue pats her. Crozier makes a move towards her, then stops.
“Three’s company,” says Swift Fox. “Count me in. Bun in the oven, up the spout. Farrow in the barrow.” At least she’s cheerful about it, thinks Toby. But whose bun?
There’s another silence. “I don’t suppose there is any point,” says Ivory Bill with heavy disapproval, “in speculating as to the paternity of these … these various imminent progenies.”
“None whatsoever,” says Swift Fox. “Or not in my case. I’ve been doing an experiment in genetic evolution. Reproduction of the fittest. Think of me as a petri dish.”
“I find that irresponsible,” says Ivory Bill.
“I’m not sure it’s any of your business,” says Swift Fox.
“Hey!” says Rebecca. “It is what it is!”
“With Amanda, it may be a Craker,” says Toby. “From something that happened the night she was … the night we got her back, from … That’s the best possibility. And that may be what happened with Ren too.”
“It wasn’t the Painballers, anyway,” says Ren. “With me. I know it wasn’t.”
“You know that how?” says Crozier.
“I don’t want to go into the gory details,” says Ren, “because you’d think it was oversharing. It’s girl stuff. We count the days. That’s how.”
“I can definitely rule out the Painballers,” says Swift Fox. “In my case. And I can rule out a few other guys too.” None of the men look at each other. Crozier suppresses a grin.
“And the Crakers as well?” says Toby, keeping her voice neutral. Who’s on her checklist? Crozier, definitely, but who else? Have there been multitudes? Maybe Zeb was one of them, after all; if so, soon there may be an infant Zeb. Then what will she herself do? Pretend she doesn’t notice? Knit babywear? Brood and sulk? The first two options would be preferable, but she’s not sure she’ll be up to them.
“I did have an interlude or two with the big blues,” says Swift Fox. “When no one was looking, which didn’t give me a huge window of opportunity, since everyone here is so snoopy. It was energetic, and I’m not sure I’d want to make a habit of it. Not much foreplay. But the pink smiley face doesn’t lie, and I will soon be heavy with young. The question is, young what?”
“Guess we’ll find out,” says Shackleton.
Zeb and Black Rhino return from their inspection of the fences. “This place is hardly a fortress,” Zeb says. “Thing is – if we take the weapons with us on the hunt, we leave everyone in the cobb house undefended.”
“Which may be what they want,” says Rhino. “Lure us out the front, sneak in the back. Make off with the women.”
“We’re not just packages,” says Swift Fox. “We can fight back! You can leave us a couple of sprayguns.”
“Good luck with that plan,” says Rhino.
“We need to move our whole group out of here when we go hunting for those guys,” says Crozier. “We can’t leave anyone behind. Take the Mo’Hairs too. If we’re all together, it’s harder for them to ambush us.”
“But easier to stampede us,” says Zeb. “How fast can we all run?”
“I’m not running,” says Rebecca. “And I need to point out here that there are three pregnant women in this crowd.”
“Three?” says Zeb.
“Ren and Swift Fox,” says Rebecca.
“When did that happen?”
“They told everyone else when you were checking the fences,” says Rebecca.
“They got knocked up by elves overnight,” says Jimmy.
“Not funny, Jimmy,” says Lotis Blue.
“Point is, bad for them to run,” says Rebecca.