The Day I Had My C-Section, 208 Pregnant Women DiedChapter 2

He looked utterly tormented, unwilling to answer my question. He just kept apologizing. “Iris, I’m sorry! I couldn’t save that many people.”

I wanted to call my parents, to ask them what was happening. The next second, their call came through.

“Iris! Are you okay? Where are you? We’ve been worried sick!”

I couldn’t hold back my tears. “Dad! Mom! I’m okay!”

“I saw the news! Chloe died, and all the other pregnant women at the maternity hospital. Do you know why?”

My dad’s voice, full of confusion, came through the phone. “Iris, what are you talking about? Chloe just gave birth, she and the baby are perfectly fine! All the other mothers are okay too!”

After he spoke, someone else snatched the phone. “Iris, it’s Chloe. You need to tell Simon to bring you back right away! You can’t delay having this baby!”

I was certain it was Chloe’s voice! She really wasn’t dead. But what about the news photos I’d seen earlier?

I was about to ask Chloe when Simon quickly snatched my phone. “They’re lying to you! Don’t trust anyone!”

Lying to me?

I tried to find the news story again, searching frantically, but it was nowhere to be found. The article seemed to have vanished, as if it had all been a trick of my mind.

Simon looked surprised, too, but quickly regained his composure. “It’s all a hoax! Iris, the only person you can trust is me!”

I had no idea what he was talking about. All I wanted to do at that moment was get off the train. But the train entered a tunnel, plunging the carriage into darkness.

“Iris, you can’t get off this train! And you can’t go back! Because…”

He stopped mid-sentence. I looked at him and saw his face had turned ghostly pale again.

“Simon! What’s wrong?”

His eyes, wide with terror, were fixed on something behind me. Through his constantly shrinking pupils, I could faintly make out a blurry shadow.

But there was only a window behind me. Was there something outside the window that had frightened him?

Out of instinct, I wanted to turn my head to look. But Simon reached out and pressed my head forward. His lips trembled, and he spoke in a voice I’d never heard before. “Don’t look back, run!”

I could distinctly feel his hand shaking; he was clearly terrified. At the same time, a cold draft blew across the back of my neck.

The next second, he pulled me from my seat. He dragged me, running, without stopping even when he bumped into several people. Only when the train fully emerged from the tunnel, and light appeared above us, did he slowly stop.

But his hand was shaking even more violently. I looked up and realized that all the passengers in the train were staring at me with strange eyes. More precisely, they were staring at my belly. It was a blank, lifeless gaze. They weren’t doing anything, but I instinctively felt a chilling dread.

As if at any second, they would rush towards me.

Thankfully, the train pulled into a station, and Simon immediately pulled me off.

Once we were off the train, that strange sense of fear dissipated. I looked at Simon. “Simon, what did you see just now?”

His expression of extreme terror was still vividly etched in my mind. It felt as if we would have died a horrible death if we had been even a second slower. What was he so afraid of? What was he hiding from? Was it that blurry black shadow?

He didn’t answer me. He just hailed a taxi. “It’s not safe on the ground anymore. We’re going to the airport.”

I was pushed into the taxi again. On the way, the driver struck up a conversation. “Ma’am, you’re in great shape! I saw you from a distance, running with that big belly, and you’re perfectly fine now!”

His words made me realize something. Ever since Simon had dragged me out of the hospital, I’d been running as if my life depended on it. But as the driver said, I hadn’t felt the slightest discomfort.

This baby seemed unnervingly resilient.