The Infant Conspiracy: Book one of the Family Oberllyn

By J Traveler Pelton

The Infant Conspiracy is a dystopian story of an immediate future where the government has made a few mistakes in trying to limit birth and has succeeded in destroying the fertility of all mammals on the planet. The Oberllyn family are Native Americans who happen to be over achievers in their fields and who work to end the plagues brought on by a shadowy group called the Brotherhood. The try to run a retreat center but the needs of the immediate force them to become one of the labor camps set up by the government.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483527796

Book preview

do.

Chapter 1

Kai Dante Oberllyn hid in the deep construction ditch by the road as he decided what to do next. He hadn’t expected there to be quite so many enforcers out- at this time of day. There were too many police, too many black vans and all of them seeming to be stopping to ask him where he was off to, as if it should bother them that he was out walking with a fishing pole, a pack and a dog. Oh, and this parrot-can’t forget the parrot-has to be some city injunction or rule about walking around with an African grey on your shoulder… He’d been walking for an hour, gotten not even to the edge of the city, and he really wanted to be out by nightfall.

It was now dusk; there was at least 8 miles to go until he would feel like he could breathe. I just can’t believe this has happened. I thought we were safe. We had the all clear for the baby, and my work for the government ought to have kept this from happening.

Just this morning he’d had a feeling something was going to not be good today-no reason he could see, so he’d shaken it off, told Zyanya to be careful, call him at lunch, he’d see her and they’d go for their usual bike ride. When she hadn’t called at noon, he had come home early from work and realized something was terribly wrong. His wife wasn’t home: since her fifth month, she’d been home. Nowadays, the law said pregnant women had to quit work in their fourth month to ensure the health of the child. He and Zyanya had been out on vacation during her fourth month, so when they returned, she was told to go home. It wasn’t unusual at all: but Zyanya had hoped her pregnancy hadn’t been reported yet so they’d be able to save more of a financial buffer-but she’d been greeted on her first day back with a smile, a congratulations and a staff party telling her to enjoy her time off-they’d see her in six months and they all wanted to see pics just as she was delivered. She was a little miffed about it but had spent the time getting the nursery ready.

Zyanya was a fanatic about her house being clean but the place looked as though it had been turned upside down. He knew she had been taken. So many women were taken now-generally in their second trimester for mercy delivery-and then were returned, told their child had had defects and been terminated. However her last appointment had just been last week: the baby was normal, there was no reason for his child to be taken. He remembered at Christmas when they’d told mom and dad about the baby and mom had wanted her to stay with them. Mom said she felt something bad was coming down, she wouldn’t elaborate, just said living in the city wasn’t going to be safe soon. He’d laughed it off, told her they’d be back when spring came-he had to work to support three now.

Son, it’s getting bad, try to get out before they come. We have room for you both at Sanctuary,

Mom, I want Zyanya to be close to good doctors-that old retreat center you inherited from Aimee is miles out in the country. We could get stranded out there.

Miah, promise me that if you get even a whiff of trouble, you’ll leave at once. Just lock the doors and come. We’ll have a place waiting for you.

Kai promised just to make mom happy. Now he was not so sure he shouldn’t have stayed. Zyanya might still be safe at Sanctuary had he gone then. Second guessing will kill me yet…

He watched as a car passed: he wanted to get out of city limits before dark. It seemed clear so he stood up and headed out of Euclid.

As he’d gone through his home looking for clues, he pondered the last few days. His security rank at the lab was high enough that he was seldom questioned about anything. He’d created so many patents for the company and the grants he’d gotten for the University that he thought they couldn’t be touched. Obviously he was wrong. Somehow, this didn’t seem like an average harvest of a mutant child. They’d been looking for something. None of his guns or knife collection were touched: Zyanya’s jewelry was all there so it wasn’t a robbery. He’d methodically went over his house, top to bottom. Zyanya would have left something for him to find: some of her clothes were gone. He found her wedding band on the bed and paused - she never took it off. He picked it up and noticed the edge of something under the pillow. On picking it up, he saw she had placed two crossbow arrows under the pillow pointing at each other - native pictograph for danger. Love and danger? He’d found her cell on the dresser, and her wallet with her identity card in it. She couldn’t go anywhere without those, yet here they were. Going into the nursery, he’d noticed Zyanya had had time to rearrange the changing table. She’d been allowed to take some baby things with her, but she’d rolled up two baby blankets into circle with a line through it-she wanted to make sure he got the message. She’d been taken, and he was not to come.

He’d sat down and considered his options. Normally, he and Zyanya biked everywhere, using the car rarely, and he knew it had a GPS chip in it. It was too traceable. If he hiked, he could make it to his folks in four days. He had no doubt he was being watched. There was no real privacy these days. He had no idea why Zyanya might have been taken. Perhaps this was the government’s way of making him take on the genetics project he was being pressured into, or just as likely to get him not to take it on.

What surprised him was the suddenness of Zyanya’s disappearance. He’d kissed her good bye this morning, told her not to overdo anything, suggested they’d go to Charlie’s for supper. She’d intended to go to the fabric store and buy some fabric for another baby quilt. She’d designed it last night and nothing in that monster stash of hers was the right color. It had to be perfect for this first baby. And when he got home, she was gone, and the house was by her standards, a mess.

He’d went to the closet where he and Zyanya had put their hiking packs - they had them stashed in case another riot started like the one last year - with dried food, water tablets, basic survival things but Zyanya’s was gone. His was emptied but nothing taken. He repacked it and found a note from Zyanya.

Go home. Red situation. Three.

They had a saying-he’d say three-for three little words-she’d say 2 for me, too. They had codes at work; a code blue meant something not legal going down, like someone getting into confidential files. Code green; bad but not dangerous. Code red-unknown danger, get out of the line of fire…what could have made a Code Red in his house?

He’d looked over the land line and found the bug almost immediately. He’d looked over his pack and found another one. He’d went through the pack and found a third. He’d repacked it yet again, added some portable weaponry and his hunting and fishing license. He’d added a fishing pole and some water bottles and went outside.

His neighbor was in the yard, working in his flower beds.

You going fishing?

Got a couple days off work, Erick, thought I’d see if I could catch some Erie cats.

Sounds good-catch one for me. Want me to watch your dog?

I’ll put her on her outside run and the food on the back porch, if you could be sure she has water?

Why not I just bring her over here? She’d be safer at night inside.

If it’s not a bother…

Zyanya meeting you?

Not that I know of. Why do you ask?

Saw her get into a black van today with a couple other ladies, carrying a suitcase. It wasn’t a mercy van. It wasn’t marked except it had government plates. Is everything ok?

She’d have called me if it wasn’t. I left her a note. Let me get the dog food.

He went inside and got Bear’s food dish and a Ziploc of kibble. Bear was a happy, noisy pom and he hesitated about taking him along. He didn’t really know how long he’d be gone. He put Grey, the African grey parrot, in his harness and put him on his shoulder. He thought about it, and checked Bear’s collar: sure enough, another bug.

He’d taken it off and went outside with some cat food. The old stray tabby that haunted the neighborhood showed up and purred while he clipped the bug to a flea collar on her neck. He went in, locked up and put the dry kibble in his pack. He’d added some Nutriberries and pellets for Grey and went outside, locking the front door.

I decided to take Bear along, he’d like a good walk. Thanks for offering. When Zyanya gets back-can you tell her I went fishing by the sanctuary lighthouse and will be back in a couple of days? I suspect she just went shopping with friends.

Going north then to fish? Sure enough, I’ll keep an eye out for her.

Kai didn’t know if could actually trust his neighbors. The old man seemed nice enough but always seemed to be outside when they went out and he wasn’t family and he wasn’t tribal. Kai went to the end of the street, crossed the road and cut down south. He ought to be home in 4 days. He’d have to stick to side roads-interstates could be dangerous. He prayed his wife would be safe wherever she was. He prayed for his unborn son, and he prayed for a safe journey. He lengthened his stride into the long lope that ate up the miles when he and Zyanya went hiking. It was 97 miles to Mt. Vernon and then he’d have to locate his folks. He’d never actually been out to the retreat center. Once he cleared Euclid, he was less cautious and hid less and he made better time.

Chapter 2

Dad was putting the last touches on painting another guestroom in the old resort they’d inherited two years ago. Shorter than his sons, with a widow’s peak and startlingly ice blue eyes, he stood up and stretched. Wife, I am not as young as I used to be, he groaned. Forty rooms-I can’t believe we painted them all.

It looks so much lighter now, and it will be wonderful when folks start coming, smiled his wife. Mom was short, with high cheekbones, brown eyes, a grandmotherly figure, thick hair that was now salt and pepper grey but which still hung to her waist when she let it down. She had small freckles on her nose, laugh lines by her eyes, an infectious smile and gentle demeanor. Just imagine it when the children come home for visits, and the grandkids are running around, and the people we’ll be able to help get away from it all. It’s going to be a wonderful retreat center. We can hold Bear feast in the lodge and the entire tribe can come and stay in late winter, and we can hold a powwow and host the other tribes. She thought back to what he’d said when he found out she’d inherited the center after her friend Aimee had died.

This place has been used as a summer camp and a retreat and a hotel, Noel mused. But it’s so far off the main drag that you’d have to be really intentional to find it if you wanted to stay.

I think it will be a great retreat center. It’s all on one floor so you’d not need to worry about handicapped accessibility. With the meadows and woods, it will be a great place to relax. I might even be able to convince some of my Washington friends to come down to rest.

I like the waterfall out back and the quartzite cave formations behind the water are gorgeous. However, the security you’d need to add to this to make it safe for Senators is not something I’d foot the bill for.

We could put out organic gardens and an orchard over on the left side meadow, and put alpacas and merinos in the one on the right side, and cut some paths through the woods and it would be a great retreat center. Besides, we’ll have the wolf pack for security.

You’re talking lots of work. And I am really not sure how the Secret Service will approve of the wolf pack. I’m not sure I approve of them.

They’re really nice dogs, and so well trained. Mingan trained them for us special, and they act like we’re pack too. Besides, just think how much money you’d save if I raised my own roving? We could hold fiber retreats and religious retreats and maybe even kid’s camps.

You’re getting ahead of yourself. We’re land rich but cash poor, remember? We need to draw up doable plans.

That had been two years ago. Once the will was read, they found that Aimee had left a bequest to take care of the cost of renovation and start-up. By hiring kids from the construction trades class at the local vocational school, and some of their Amish neighbors, they had gotten a lot of work done on the lodge at a very reasonable price, and it now boasted an up to date commercial kitchen and friendly dining room, two comfortable lounges, and now the final guest room painted. There were some larger meeting rooms in back that weren’t finished yet, and the library didn’t have any shelves, and the chapel wasn’t done, except for the stained glass window. However, the apartment for the caretakers-meaning them, was almost done and ready for them to move in.

Well, forty rooms is about 39 too many to have to paint, moaned Noel as he stretched his back. Tomorrow, the Amish crew are coming in to finish up the last floors, and we can have the kids help us move in the furniture. Good thing Aimee had already gotten furniture before she passed.

The hotel had had new furniture stacked up in a barn. Aimee, mom’s friend who had left her the place, was in the process up updating when she’d been killed in an accident. She’d had most the new furniture and fixtures in the big barn, wrapped up in plastic. There was a stockpile of lumber and other building materials in the barn as well, all neatly stacked by size. Aimee had had big plans, and enough income to make those plans happen. She and Mom had talked about mom working with her to run retreats for people, and they’d done much of the planning for the updates. Aimee had called her the praying partner. Aimee provided the physical surroundings and mom prayed for guidance. It all had been coming together and then came the accident that took Aimee. Mom had been surprised to learn she had inherited the entire center and grounds and enough endowment to make it work. Aimee’s grown children hadn’t wanted the old resort, they were content with the money and businesses and homes Aimee had left them so mom and Dad worked to make Aimee’s dream of giving back to people a reality.

There were three other large barns. The barn out back where the furniture was stored was completely stuffed with furnishings and wood. The second one was in the fields where the animals stayed; it had 10 stalls, storage room, a tack room, and was plumbed for water. The third, larger barn was near the orchard. For some odd reason, it had hay and school desks in it. The meadows had one at time been fenced, but Noel had had an Amish fence builder tear out the old fences and fence just the right side of the drive into ten, two acre meadow fields for the animals. He’d had them repair and paint the smaller barn and added a chicken house to it at one end and a wind shade cover for the camelids at the other end. Now a small herd of friendly alpaca and llamas lived in two divisions, merino sheep and a border collie pair in another, pyagora goats in another, a pair of halflinger horses and a couple Morgan’s in the next, paco-vicuna crosses in one with a great Pyrenees dog to help keep them calm, with cashmere goats in the sixth field. The flock of chickens scratched in the last occupied field. The final three fields were left fallow until the animals would be moved. Every two weeks they were moved over one field, since each one ate grass to a different level, and the last field used was by the chickens, who chicken-tractored it. After they left, the thoroughly eaten and scratched up field was limed, reseeded, watered and covered with old straw. In six weeks, it would be ready for the horses again. The field on the other side of the driveway was divided into orchards and small fruits like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, a three acre garden and hayfields. The driveway was shaded for the first 500 feet by pine trees, then large flowering trees on both sides. All along the front of the property were three rows of pines, giving privacy. As soon as you got to the flowering trees, redbuds and crabapples, you could see the fields and the large, long lodge at the end of the drive.

The lodge had a full porch with several hanging swings and at least a dozen rocking chairs. There were hanging pots full of bright flowers-mostly petunias in reds and purples but also lantanas in oranges and yellows. The lodge was stone and logs and looked like something you would expect on a western ranch. Its actual shape was a large rectangle with a center that was open planted into a meditation bed with flowers and paths and benches in shady spots-and a small waterfall fountain in one corner, that ran into a small stream that had a brightly colored bridge over it, and miniature Japanese maples and dwarf willow planted beside it. Several small sculptures found their homes in quiet spots, and small plaques with wise sayings were scattered here and there. There were four entrances to the center garden.

Several of the suites on the side had small enclosed private porches. The back had a full deck with a gazebo at each end, one holding benches to sit and relax and the other a large hot tub. There was an extensive formal garden with a fountain to one side of the path through the back yard and a formal herb bed on the other side, and beyond the garden a swimming pool with a storage barn behind it and to the right beyond the herb bed, a labyrinth to walk. The labyrinth was made of knee high flowering bushes, trimmed neatly to allow for three foot wide paths to stroll, and at its’ center was an arbor, covered in roses in pinks and reds, and benches underneath. In the arbor was also a memorial, engraved on all four sides with the history of the retreat, and several proverbs Aimee had thought beautiful to think on, with a spinning marble fountain topping it. Beyond the pools and garden was a woods with several quiet paths leading to interesting places like the waterfall, and a picnic area and a peaceful fifteen acre lake that had a bike path around it.

While Aimee and mom were working on their dreams, the world had been falling rapidly into pieces. For some odd reason, normal children were no longer the norm. It was unknown as to whether it was pollution or solar storms, the ozone layer depleting, or something the government had done, or a terrorist attack or aliens, Homeland Security was going berserk. The government had declared what it called a partial martial law followed by a stricter set of laws about giving birth to children with too many defects; everyone was screened now. If the baby wasn’t normal, the checks included a possibility of how normal it would be and whether it would be worthwhile for the child to be born, how much it would cost to give it an average life. If it would be too costly, it was euthanized and harvested for parts. Some felt that harvesting parts from mutant infants was possibly making the plague worse-others did not know. People who found themselves pregnant lived in suspense until their child was declared able to live in its sixth month. The possibility of having a child was not considered a blessing anymore, but a possible curse. People talked as little as possible about their pregnancies: and even after declared able to be born, it was no longer polite to congratulate a couple with child, as there was almost always the grim possibility of huge medical expenses to keeping a child alive.

Since some thought overcrowding in cities could be the problem, now there was a housing authority. Any city over 25,000 people had someone telling everyone where they could live, how big a place they had to have, ensure there was a yard for the children to play in. Just like any other government program, they could all be bribed… Nearly 60 % of all children were harvested, taken before birth due to defects but some of their organs could be used in stem cell research and for replacements or to repair other children not quite as deformed and deemed able to make it with help. Children were expected to be in state daycare centers so they could be trained to live according to standards of good citizenship, and to ensure their parents did not have too much say in the shifting moral standards. Ethical philosophers muttered, religious speakers fussed but the bottom line was no one had control over their own pregnancies anymore. The government met each new crisis with new laws and even the lawyers had trouble keeping up. Where women had once insisted they have control of their bodies-if they were within the ages of 12 and 45, they really didn’t. Everyone had to have genetic testing done before they were married. Unmarried mothers were not acceptable parents. With the population of the country at sake, their children were placed with healthy, better able to give a proper upbringing, screened by the government, adoptive parents. Those who were married and had healthy children were given priority in housing and jobs and just about everything else. The economy was a mess, a new division of government was set up to ensure everyone had work to do whether paid or not, part of the new/old welfare reform said people had to work for benefits, and it got hard to decipher who was in a regular job, who was working on the dole, and who was being a volunteer. The backlash was almost predictable. Everyone knew it was worse than the Civil rights rioting in the sixties. Tempers were frayed. Life was getting to be untenable in the cities. Crime was skyrocketing.

Last Christmas, when Kai and his wife Zanaya, Lilianna and her three kids Phoebe, Giselle and Donovan, Jasmine and her husband Scott, and Gabriel and his son Gabe had been home, Noel (dad) and Violet Grace(mom) had discussed with them all the need to get out of the cities as soon as they could and the need to come to the country where they’d have a better chance at being safe from the riots. The riots last summer got uncomfortably close to where Lilianna and her kids lived; she and the grandkids had spent a couple uncomfortable days holed up in a public shelter while the police put down the riot near their apartments. She’d come close to losing the kids because she was a divorced mom. However, since the kids were doing fine in school, since she had a job, and no huge debts, and there was extended family they’d been able to get the Child care workers to go away. Zyanya and Kai announced they were expecting and in the present political climate, even with their genetic permit to have a child in place, bad things could happen.

Look at this article, Dad had declared. So many children were declared enemies of the state, using too many resources to become healthy enough to live because they weren’t born perfect or their parents weren’t supposed to have them and the government harvested them at 6 months so the organs could be used… it doesn’t happen so much in small towns. In the larger cities, the government might decide that your socio-economic group didn’t need to get any larger and schedule you for harvest-women disappeared expectant and came back talking of a big building where they remembered nothing until they returned, no longer pregnant.

I read that now we have friendly visitors who make sure women go to their appointments and prenatal care is mandatory. They sound like spies to me. Mom frowned. It wasn’t this was when I worked at Child Protection.

Mom, some said the pollution has caused the increase in mutant children, some say it was the judgment of God, some think it was the government’s way of making up for the organ donation needs for the wealthy. Some even blame Bill Gates and say he thinks our population has to go down by a third to save the environment…in my research, I don’t see any of those as causing this. Kai had gotten exasperated at the conversation because it seemed to be causing Zyanya discomfort. They’d just realized a short time ago that she was expecting.

Gabriel had changed the subject. You remember reading where the president and the pope and the Dalai Lama had all gotten together at the last economic summit to talk in private? They’d all come out talking about how good it was that they were all working together for peace, praising each other for being tolerant.

Yes, I saw that. Right after that, the leaders went back to their countries with what was supposed to be a new plan to improve the economy worldwide. That was before the mutants all started, just after the die-off.

Yeah, we’ve been studying that in nursing school. It’s pretty serious. Sure glad Zyanya and Kai are health nuts…

It’s not crazy to be healthy, Zyanya had said firmly. You need to be strong nowadays.

Kai thought about it all as he walked. His Zyanya was strong: she’d run a half marathon in her first trimester. They both had martial arts black belts and they’d come in handy with some of the work they’d done. But mom and dad didn’t need to know about the more clandestine parts of their lab work. If they knew that those lab trips they’d taken to the Amazon and China had been covers…better they didn’t know. No use to cause them worry right now or ever for that matter.

His brother Gabriel and his little boy were already living in the retreat center with their grandparents. Gabriel had a job as a nurse at the local hospital, and commuted by scooter each day, and he worked on completing his Master’s and nurse practitioner education. His son, 6 year old Little Gabe homeschooled at home with grandma. They stayed off the grid as much as possible. Mom had retired from public service three years ago, but still was called in as a consultant. They were all good friends with their Amish neighbors. In fact, the nearest non-Amish home was six miles closer to town. Noel had insisted on putting in solar and wind power and they had a small hydraulic RAM in the stream which would make them electric independent. They had steam radiators through the guest rooms, and the furnace that heated the water for it ran on wood-which, since the resort had over 500 acres, over half of it wooded, wasn’t that big a problem. Mom used their van to drive the Amish in for shopping and errands. Dad had retired two years ago from his job as head of the research lab and between working on the retreat, and working on inventions, kept busy. He found it amusing that after he left, people no longer called Kai his son; he became Kai’s dad - kind of a changing of the guard. Dad still communicated with folks in his field, but he wasn’t actively working on anything that took time away from his beloved inventions. The world seemed very far away except when they had to go into town occasionally for supplies. Kai quickened his pace. He wanted to get farther from the city before dark.

Chapter 3

Have you heard from Jasmine or Scott? Mom asked Dad when he came in from his run in to buy more sixteen penny nails. He came back with a fifty pound bucket of them and several ten pound boxes of other sizes. Good grief, what’s all that?

We’ll need them down the road if I’m to build a treehouse for the grandchildren.

I see. Well, have you heard from the kids?

He looked serious. Jasmine had to go in for another physical to see why she hasn’t gotten pregnant. She’s sick of it. The fertility center says they ought to have kids, they are both gifted, have great genes and all that but they don’t get pregnant and this monthly re-testing is making them both wrecks. Scott said if they couldn’t have kids, they’d been told they ought to donate eggs and sperm for the good of the country for someone else to have-he was pretty upset. They even suggested Scott and she weren’t compatible and ought to agree to have Jasmine fertilized by another alpha male.

I’ll bet that went over great. But I guess since she and Scott are gifted, and our other grandkids were born healthy, they want to improve the gene pool. Do they need anything?

Scott has been asked to give his job up.

What? Why?

He’s pretty shell shocked about it. They didn’t give him a reason but he thinks it’s because he and Jasmine refused to donate cells and sperm. Jasmine says they’ve been asked to give up the 3 bedroom condo and move to an efficiency as they have no kids.

Did you tell them to come here?

I did. We’re going over tomorrow morning to bring them and their stuff home.

Will Jasmine still be working at the clinic?

I don’t know. She didn’t say. I think they were both so upset over everything and they just need to get out of it. It’s hard to be objective when you’re in the middle of a situation.

I guess so. Let’s put them across the hall in that large suite with the back porch. They can store the extra things they own in the back barn. Scott must be sick losing that job. He really enjoyed management.

He was good, too. Well, we’ll just him work for us. Maybe they just need a place to relax, and this will be good for them.

I surely hope so. Help me with this list, we need to stockpile stuff that may be hard to get later and I don’t want to forget anything. I never know whether to take the threats of shortages seriously anymore. I’m going to fax it over to Jasmine to pick up in the morning.

Jasmine got mom’s list that night and she and Scot went into town first thing, early, to pick up stuff. She hadn’t really looked at it last night as she’d been too busy packing boxes so they could move. She’d called off work at the clinic so she could pack and get ready. Jasmine hadn’t