Why do men always find her kind so attractive? She wouldn't be so pretty if those nipples were festering and sore...dripping blood...
In her mind, Gemma envisioned the other woman's dark flesh points begin to ooze.
"Hey!" exclaimed the startled attendant in the next row. "What's happening here? You're bleeding..."
Appalled by the coincidence, Gemma began to tremble.
Did I do that? How could I?
At a man's touch to the side of her temple, Gemma started violently. Her eyes flew open in shock.
But, it was only the physician beside her, applying small plastic tabs to her person: one beside each eye, another behind each ear, several down her chest, and one in each arm pit.
It wasn't that the tags were uncomfortable. Gemma had endured this procedure many times before; they were just leads for the heart monitor machine.
It was what happened each time the man touched her, that threw her so off balance: a rapid fire of images and suggestions assaulted her senses every time he made contact.
Now, instead of being simply exhausted and famished, Gemma became nauseous, feeling as if on a roller coaster, dizzy and sick.
The man beside her grunted in disgust; he was peering closely at the monitor beside them.
"Oh! Heck!"
"What?" asked his attendant.
"I think, this one is flawed," the physician answered. "And in more than one way. I am certain, she can neither hear nor see."
I can hear you! Your instruments are the ones faulty.
Sure, sometimes I have trouble with my sight, but I know I can hear! And see...better than you realize...
From the other aisle, that physician cautioned.
"You'd best use wisdom, and not reject her. We need every female we can get. A lot has gone into each..."
The other growled at him in anger.
"Do you think I don't know that? This one is already chosen, but...I must still recommend further testing. Her readings are abnormal...she is handicapped."
"She'd still be good to breed?"
What is this? You are not touching me! I'm not some animal!
"Of course, but...she'd bring forth a flawed fetus...a replicate of herself."
The other shook his head.
"What is the matter with the lab physicians, on the other side, that they don't pick up on this, before sending her over?"
"I have to report it," insisted the first. "If her claimant still desires her..."
"He's an old one; been in the field a long time," interjected the attendant.
"I need to go by the rules..."
"Your choice," agreed the physician from the other aisle.
While this conversation had continued, Gemma became more and more puzzled.
Why is no one reacting?
Those around them, all the nearby women waiting to be processed; the other attendants, each appeared either not to understand or hear, or they were ignoring what was being said.
Why?
It dawned on her then: the two physicians had been conversing in a different tongue, and...Gemma had understood every word.
I must be reading them...I don't need to be taught their language!
I'm not flawed! I'm exceptional! But...maybe, that's not good. Maybe, that's what they mean by flawed...
I'd better watch it...
I wonder what they do with someone like me?
And then Gemma knew...without being told.
They would kill her!
Chapter 13
Gemma was sure her poor stomach had given up hope of ever being fed. When she felt anything at all, there was this lethargic numbness; and an empty acid burn, as if her insides were eating at her back bone.
She couldn't stop trembling. The chill of the air on her exposed skin, combined with her fatigue, was getting the best of her, and all she wanted was to lay down, curl up under a blanket, and sleep for a week.
But that wasn't the least of her problems. Every time she came near another person, bumped up against a woman, or even stood near them, images from that individual's memories flashed through her mind. No matter how Gemma fought to reject them, she was bombarded from all sides with rapid fire pictures, like a movie from a past, she neither wanted to see, nor had experienced.
The processing over, the women were thrown together in groups of thirty, in small holding rooms. A large mat was spread on the floor, but no other warm coverings were available. The other women in Gemma's room huddled together for warmth, comforting one another, but Gemma fled quickly to the farthest corner, away from all the rest. There, she sat, hugging herself, knees pulled up, trying her best to make sense of it all, and to warm her very exposed and naked form.
Why are none of the others seeing visions? Don't they hear the thoughts of the men? Am I the only one? I...
Turned out a freak?
Maybe, I'm going totally mad?
Severely traumatized in the first place, at being thrown into this appalling place, Gemma shivered and trembled, feeling very much alone. Deliberately remaining apart, she tried to decide what her options were. It was when she calmed in this way, that she was finally able to sort out the facts she had gathered.
By organizing the images from the men, she knew things...realizations that made her livid with anger; both humiliated and disgusted.
She had never had cancer! They had simply used a tag, and it had gotten infected. But, the brand had originally meant, they had chosen her for their experiments, to manipulate her body and change it, so it would be more like they wanted it.
These obnoxious men had wanted her as a breeder, and it didn't matter that she already was married. Because Sam was in the way, he needed to be eliminated. They had actually stimulated the dormant cancer gene, that is found in
