The Scent of Lions

by Tara Campbell

“Congratulations, Mrs. Costa,” chirped the young Life Center nurse. “You’re ready to go home! Here’s your shield.”

Maria raised the infant in her arms high enough for the nurse to slip the slim, silver band around her waist.

“Let’s check the charge.” The nurse stepped back and smiled, nodding for Maria to switch on her shield. Maria shifted little Leon to free up a hand, causing her bag to slip off her shoulder.

“Oops, you don’t want to lose that,” cautioned the nurse, looping the strap back in place. She’d just rattled off the contents of the WellBaby Bag to Maria a moment ago: a blanket and hat, formula (to be used only “if all else fails”), diapers, home vaccination kit, a full power infant shield, and an emergency replacement shield.

The nurse stepped back and pushed her pink infospecs up the bridge of her nose. “Okay, try again.”

Maria slid a switch on the inside of her belt. She jumped slightly at the fizz of her shield activating—it had been over half a year since she’d last worn it—and little Leon’s body stiffened against her. She rocked him gently to comfort him. As the shield quieted to a low hum, he settled back into the crook of her arm.

Maria stretched her other arm out to reacquaint herself with the shield. The field of charged particles followed the contours of her body, moving with her and extending about a foot all around her. She looked up at the nurse again and squinted. Maria used to see through her shield just fine every day on the way to work. Now she found it hard to concentrate on the young woman’s face through the swirling, marbling effect.

“You’re not imagining things,” said the nurse. “Your shield strength is higher. We’ve given you an extra charge to make sure you and little—” The nurse hesitated, checking the display in her glasses. “—little Leon will get home safely. The shields in your bag have also been fully loaded.”

“Thank you.” Her voice was fuzzy and low. She cleared her throat, but she didn’t know what to say next. After eight months, she couldn’t wait to see Marco again and introduce him to his son. But the news reports of another aboveground school with an outdated structural shield, another angry young man with a tactical laser . . .

“Just double-checking your release paperwork,” said the nurse. She paused, her eyes flicking back and forth behind her pink frames. “Your husband signed the Head of Family Covenant yesterday, so everything’s in order. Is he coming to meet you?”

“He’s at work.” Even before Maria said it, she imagined the apologetic face the nurse would make. She hated that expression, the one that masqueraded as pity while it really asked why she had gotten pregnant if her husband couldn’t even afford a day off work to bring her home from the Life Center. But to her surprise, the nurse’s face softened.

“I know,” the young woman said quietly. “It’ll be the same with us.” She ran a hand over her still-flat stomach and tightened her lips. “But you’ll be fine.” She adjusted her face into the official smile. “You’ll be wonderful. Congratulations, Mrs. Costa.” The nurse pressed a button on the wall, and a levichair floated toward them. “Please have a seat.”

The nurse steadied the chair, and Maria lowered herself into it. She took a big breath as the nurse guided the chair down the beige hallway toward the elevator. Leon began to squirm, and Maria realized that she’d been gripping his tiny body too tightly. She loosened her hold and kissed his head, drawing in his warm scent to steady herself.

Just fourteen blocks to home.

Life Center staff in pink or blue scrubs with matching infospecs bustled around her levichair, smiling at Leon in her arms. The nurse directed her into the floating elevator car and pressed the up button. As the elevator ascended the dozen levels to the surface, monitors in the doors ahead of her rotated colorful pictures of mothers and babies overlaid with advice for new mothers:

Do you have your home vaccination kit?

Download “Nursemaid Maia” from www.lifecenter.gov/infantcare for voice-activated help.

Electricity is life. For baby’s sake, keep your shields charged.

Log on to www.lifecenter.gov/milestones for baby’s first Bible study.

Golden Hours for September 12, 2056: 10:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m.

Maria checked the current time on the monitor: 9:59. Her discharge would coincide with that day’s bonus surge in police drone coverage. Protection during the morning and evening commute was a given. The government had long since stopped the drop-in-the-ocean policy of holding Golden Hours after dark.

Once out of the elevator, the nurse steered Maria’s levichair down a brightly lit hallway with powder blue walls and pink accents. They turned the corner to the discharge waiting room. Anxious spouses and partners lifted lined faces from their mobile devices; a few cocked sleek smartglasses onto their foreheads in anticipation of meeting their newest family members. Maria gazed past their disappointment. Nobody here was looking for her.

Fourteen blocks. With a full shield.

Her levichair floated past linen suits, polythene coveralls, and leather skirts, past shining high heels, scuffed sneakers, and thick, spiked jackboots that tapped out their wearers’ nervous energy. She focused on the door, titanium coated with cheerful pink paint, rivets and seams all brushed the same color so as not to draw attention to their function as a fortress. Above the door, letters scrolled across an electronic banner: God Bless our Republic and its Mothers!

She’d been out there, beyond those doors, every day before coming to the Life Center. She just had to trust in the shield, walk with the confidence of a full charge, and make herself the least vulnerable-looking target—with a two-day-old baby. Her throat tightened. She buried her nose in Leon’s wispy dark curls.

The nurse stopped the levichair. “It’s time.”

Maria twisted her neck and stared dumbly at the young woman. She hadn’t even wanted to come here, and now she couldn’t get up from the chair.

“Mrs. Costa,” prodded the nurse. “It’s 10:03.”

Maria’s lips parted, but she could only nod. Her arms and legs were jelly. Where was the angry Maria who’d cursed herself for not having bribed the landlord to tamper with their apartment’s septic hormone meters? Why throw money away, she and Marco had thought, there wasn’t going to be any pregnancy for the State to detect. Contraception was the third highest line item on their household budget after rent and electricity, before food.

And where was the feisty Maria who had struggled against the security forces when they’d come for her, who had fantasized about gouging out their eyes, stealing a laser, and breaking out of the vehicle on the way to the Life Center?

The nurse placed a hand on Maria’s elbow and coaxed her up. Maria rose, swaying slightly as the nurse pushed the levichair toward the wall to await its next summons.

“Just remember, you have twenty seconds once the door opens to clear the Center’s shield, okay?” The nurse squeezed Maria’s arm. “You’ll be all right.”

The door slid open, and both women squinted in the natural light. Eight months after she’d been escorted into the Life Center, Maria hitched her WellBaby Bag onto her shoulder, kissed Leon’s forehead, and walked out into the city.

Fourteen blocks.

Maria choked on her first breath of air. The inside of her nose burned. Her second breath pinched the back of her throat. She’d been spoiled the last eight months.

The door of the Life Center slid closed behind her with a dull, pneumatic thud.

Leon coughed, his tiny pink tongue curling behind the “o” of his lips. Maria pulled his blanket up over his face, but his tiny fist pulled it away. He coughed again and began to whine.

“Shh shh shh.” She jiggled him in one arm and swung her bag forward onto her thigh, coaxing it open to grab for a rag. Leon wriggled and fussed, and Maria winced with each rasping breath he drew. “Mommy’s sorry, Leon. You’ll get used to it.”

A buzzer blared behind her, and she turned into the glare of a flashing red light. A mechanized voice informed her that she had fifteen seconds to leave the perimeter. She scooted quickly outside the white lines. Her brothers used to play chicken in their shields, and even at half power, they left some nasty burns. She could only imagine what a whole building’s shield would do.

She fingered the bag’s zipper open and found a thin, gauzy piece of fabric. No one talked directly about the air, but she guessed the cloth was intended as a filter. Sure enough, she found that the rag had a loop in its corner that fit around her neck, while the rest draped easily over Leon. She smiled at him through the transparent fabric.

She could do this. She would make this work.

The baby was agitated, squalling in fits and starts as though testing his lungs under the cloth. His intermittent cries drilled into Maria’s ears as she tried to take in her surroundings. The day was relatively clear, the sun a fuzzy orb behind cottony, gray streaks. The street yawned before her, silent and empty. Tall brick buildings loomed on either side, half of them unshielded and boarded over. Down the road, the leaves of a lone oak dangled from spindly branches.

Maria made her way down the middle of the cracked concrete road, keeping an equal distance on both sides. It was slow going at first: her pelvis still ached, but no painkillers for her, of course. “Clean Mamas mean Safe Tatas.” Only the female Life Center staffers would say that, though, and only in a cheerful whisper, with a little conspiratorial wink to make you feel better.

Two streets ahead, a pair of teenaged boys ambled around the corner, heads swiveling, eyes roaming. One was tall and thin, his head shaved. The shorter one had an inverse Mohawk, a single strip shorn down the middle of his light blond hair. Both of them wore their shields nihilistically at half power.

Maria slowed her steps. Stopping completely would signal fear.

With barely a glance, the boys turned and wandered up the street ahead of her. But just as she released her breath, the shorter one twisted and looked back over his shoulder. Maria was already getting used to the view through her shield, but she was too far away to read the eyes framed by the boy’s twin curtains of hair.

The taller boy stopped and looked back as well. He didn’t backtrack, but he looked Maria up and down.

Maria froze. She hoped money was all they were after.

Her heart thudded. Leon wailed, and she made a show of tending to him. Her head down, she kept her eyes on the boys, when what she really wanted to do was look up for a police drone. But she couldn’t risk them thinking that she had any reason to worry, that her shield might have any weaknesses to exploit.

This wasn’t the first time she’d been in this situation. She just had to be calm, patient, and watchful, like the zebras in the zoo. They were her favorite animals to visit as a child, before air pollution killed off the more delicate exhibits and budget cuts closed the rest. She would hold on to the railing and watch the zebras, their muscles twitching, nostrils flaring at the scent of lions prowling just outside their walls. She always yelled out to the zebras not to worry; the walls would keep them safe.

Maria didn’t see any weapons hanging from the teenagers’ shoulders, although attack lasers got smaller and smaller all the time. They could have anything tucked into their pockets, she supposed; the only question was whether boys like that could have gotten access to a hand laser powerful enough to penetrate her shield. She strained to decipher the low murmurs the two boys exchanged, but between Leon’s cries and the blood pounding in her ears, it was impossible.

The tall boy finally shook his shaved head and walked away. The shorter one turned and followed him, leaving her trembling in their wake. She held Leon close and buried her nose in his smell.

Eleven more blocks to go.

She switched Leon from one arm to another and readjusted the cloth over him. His body curled with a fit of wet-sounding coughs. She wanted to walk faster, but the teenagers were still shuffling ahead of her. Should she turn and go down the next block? It wouldn’t be as fast, but . . .

The boys crossed over the road and turned left at the next intersection. Maria picked up her pace, drifting to the opposite sidewalk as she hurried forward.

Leon’s breathing had finally settled into a steady rattle. She had to get him home, out of this air. If he got sick . . . They could barely afford food and rent and electricity, and that was before she’d been sequestered at the Life Center for the past eight months—another bill they would have to pay now, despite insurance. That was the end of their nest egg toward an underground home of their own.

A cramp shot through her lower abdomen. She stopped and hunched over. As she rested, she glanced at a building next to her, hoping to catch a window for a reflection into the intersection ahead. All she saw was brick and a pried-off board, leading, no doubt, to one of the many “resorts” where almost anyone could still afford to slip in and get away from it all.

To ease the cramp she hummed one of the approved nursery rhymes, a technique the Life Center taught to soothe both baby and mother:

God Bless the Republic,

And God bless the mothers,

And God bless my baby sisters and brothers.

Mama will raise me independent and free

Because Mama loves the Republic and me.

She stood straight and walked again, humming as the pain subsided.

Ten more blocks.

Maria held Leon tighter, testing how quickly she could move without jostling him. She would have had him at home, if they let you; or in a hospital at the last minute, like in the stories her grandmother used to tell. No, she and Marco weren’t ready, but she knew she would have kept the baby even without supervision. She remembered all the pictures from health class in school: greasy hair splayed across grimy sheets; steely, blood-caked instruments; blue faces with gaping white lips, a thick black stripe inserted over the eyes to preserve privacy. The price of disobeying God and Government.

She looked up toward the buzz of a drone, the blinking eye and sleek weaponry of the State here to protect her. Relief eased into her chest, and the thought that she was now only nine blocks away from home shot renewed energy through her limbs. Maria watched the drone whiz forward, patrolling the street.

Maria spotted another woman in the distance. The woman stood in the middle of the road, head tilted back to watch the drone cruise over her. As the drone disappeared into the distance, the woman began walking again, toward Maria. Maria angled off the sidewalk out toward the middle of the road again, still on alert, but feeling safer with another set of eyes watching out for her. Another voice to warn her of whatever she might miss. And she, of course, was doing the same for the other woman. “Your body, your responsibility,” they’d always been taught. “And ladies, it’s your job to look out for one another, too. Don’t let each other down.” Maria held up her part of the bargain, scanning the streets for both of them.

Halfway home! With just seven more blocks to go, Maria replayed her apartment code in her head, wondering if her fingers would still move automatically after so many months away.

As the woman got closer, Maria noted with a start how young she was. She was tall, and she had pinned her shining black hair up into a mature style, but she was just a girl, really; probably still in high school. There must have been something seriously wrong at home to send her out by herself. Or maybe she didn’t even have a home anymore; maybe she was all on her own.

Maria’s cheeks warmed with embarrassment over how much she’d worried about herself, being taken care of at the Life Center and having Marco to go home to. Here she was fretting about her husband working double-shifts for her and the baby when this poor girl was out wandering the streets on her own.

And rail thin. The girl was starving out here while Maria had bickered over the bounty of food at the Life Center, sometimes refusing to eat, incensed at the idea that every spoonful of soup or piece of fruit likely cost three times what it would have at home.

“Don’t you worry about that,” the nurses would tell her. “This is all subsidized.”

Yes, but the subsidies didn’t come close to paying the bills, she would tell them.

“There’s an appeals process you can look into later,” they would say. “Right now your job is to make sure your baby has everything he needs. Don’t worry about the rest.”

The doctors had threatened to put her on sedatives if she didn’t get her stress level down. They may actually have done it at one point; she couldn’t be sure. But she couldn’t blame them, could she? They were only doing what was best for her baby.

Maria passed the young woman a couple of blocks from her street. She smiled and nodded at the girl. The girl nodded back and flashed a strained, closed-lip smile. Her eyes, constantly shifting and assessing, flickered only briefly toward Maria. Mother and child: the one thing she didn’t have to watch out for.

Maria regretted that she didn’t have any food or money to give her. But then again, there was the baby formula. Maria stopped and looked after the girl. The formula was nutritious, but would Maria offend her by offering? Plus, mothers were under strict orders not to barter or give away any of their babies’ supplies. This had all been covered in depth in the Life Center’s parenting classes.

Three more blocks.

Maria turned away and kept walking, ignoring the persistent dull ache in her pelvis.

God Bless the Republic,

And God bless the mothers . . .

She wondered where the girl was going. She herself would be home soon, safe. Marco would come home for a few hours before heading to his other job. She’d have to start looking for work again. State-sanctioned positions for mothers were restricted, home-based and low-paid, but anything would help. Marco couldn’t go on like this; he always looked exhausted in their holophone calls.

Despite everything, Maria felt a surge of hope when she turned the corner onto her street. There was her familiar red brick building, half a block down. Through the comforting glow of the building’s shield—the same strength as the others around it, which had been a determining factor for their moving in—she could tell that most of its metallic shutters were rolled down. But one unit was home, taking advantage of Golden Hours to let in some light. That’s what she would do when she got home: roll up the shutters, let in some light, and start planning for her future with Leon and Marco.

A sharp, female voice ricocheted through the empty blocks: “Stay back!”

Maria stopped. Was that the girl she’d passed on the street?

Laughter echoed, mocking, in response. The cackling was brash, male, predatory—and it came from more than one person.

Maria pressed herself against a wall and swallowed. They wouldn’t have seen her, and her front door was just down the road.

“I’ve got a shield!” the girl shouted, but the boys just laughed again.

Maria looked up for a police drone. Nothing. Leon wriggled in her arms.

An electric crackle needled through the air—the sound of a shield about to fail.

“Uh-oh,” one of the boys taunted.

Maria’s stomach clenched. She could be at her door in thirty seconds. She could summon a drone from home.

Footsteps pounded down the street, first one set, then multiple. Maria saw a flash of the dark-haired girl running past the intersection, followed by a blur of boys.

And then Maria found herself back in the street, running after the boys and yelling. She clutched Leon to her chest, his body tight with shock. “Stop!”

There were three boys up ahead, the two she’d seen before plus a new one. They threw their heads back over their shoulders as she shouted at them. Their gait stuttered.

Maria stumbled to a halt. She gasped at a sharp pain stabbing between her legs. Leon howled, his cries trilling with phlegm. She let go of his head to root through the open bag on her hip, spilling rags and formula to dig out the extra infant shield. She could throw it to the girl; but would it even help? She clutched it in her trembling fist and pressed Leon against her.

The boys stopped, waited, turned half toward her in postures of disbelief. The girl kept on running. Leon drew a breath, and for an instant, Maria heard the crackling of the girl’s shield and the pounding of her feet as she disappeared around a corner.

The boys stood fifty feet away from Maria, still and staring.

What the hell was she doing? She’d run out here without thinking of her baby—or at all.

The short boy with the reverse Mohawk winced at Leon’s piercing wails. The tall, bald one in the middle shook his head. His stare slid into a leer. He slipped a hand into a jacket pocket and stepped forward.

Maria stepped back, her foot crunching on a packet of formula. The short boy grabbed his friend’s sleeve, saying something she couldn’t make out over Leon’s wailing. The tall boy shook the hand off his sleeve and stalked directly toward her. Maria’s legs felt weak.

Trust in the shield.

The tall boy’s pocket bulged; his fist clutched something inside. She stumbled backward, her feet tangling in one of the baby blankets she’d dropped. Leon shrilled. She should run. Why couldn’t she run?

And why couldn’t she see straight? The shadows of the boys loomed before her, faint blobs of color in a grainy, white fog. She couldn’t move at all. Leon went abruptly quiet; his wriggling ceased.

“Remain calm, Mrs. Costa,” a female voice intoned from above. “This is the Police.”

She hadn’t noticed the drone approaching. She tried to look up at it.

I’m safe, she told herself. Leon’s safe. This is a rescue.

“Don’t resist,” ordered the drone. “You’re in a stasis shield. You’ll be safe while we investigate.”

The blobs of color still lurked in front of her, unmoving. She could only hope they were in the same stasis she was.

Minutes of silence passed. Maria pushed down waves of panic, fighting the anxiety of being utterly paralyzed in the middle of the street. She couldn’t even look down to check on Leon. She listened for his breathing, rattling but steady. She felt wet between her legs, and she hoped her hygiene pad would hold. She concentrated on Leon’s breath, slowing her own, willing the throbbing in her pelvis and between her legs to disappear.

The drone’s female voice finally asked Maria what had happened. Between gulps of air, she told it everything: the walk home from the Life Center, the poor thin girl on her own, the failing shield, the three boys chasing her down the street. Her voice was shaking less by the end, but she couldn’t move to wipe the tears rolling down her cheeks.

“All right, Mrs. Costa,” the drone finally announced. “You’re free to go.”

Maria swayed as though she’d been dropped onto the pavement. She blinked the world back into focus. Leon sputtered. The boys were gone. Maria clutched her baby, spun around and ran all the way home.

The notification pinged onto her comm wall as soon as she entered the apartment. Within the minute it had taken her to dash to the door, fumble with the code, reactivate the building shield, and float the elevator up to her apartment, the notice had been served.

Maria rushed past the display, switched off her personal shield, dropped her WellBaby Bag to the floor, and pulled the infant air filter from around her neck. She rocked Leon, whispering to him that everything would be all right. She bobbed him on her shoulder, twisting side to side and patting his back. She laid him down only long enough to check her underwear—a little clear discharge on the pad, a little blood, she’d consult Nursemaid Maia—and picked him up again. She needed his weight in her arms.

Leon settled into her body, and she brushed her cheek against his warm little head. She rocked and soothed and breathed it’s okay now into his ear until she began to believe it herself. Only after Leon fell asleep on her shoulder did she read the notice on her wall comm:

Citation (Warning)

Cited Party:

Maria Costa

Civil Code:

Family Foundation

Subsection:

Infant Care

Charge:

Negligence—material aids

Per Civil Code FF-IC 82.7653, parent is responsible for proper care and maintenance of all items related to childrearing. Failure to properly care for all material aids to childrearing (diapers, formula, shields, etc.) may result in a fine of up to $5,000 and/or 30 days in jail.

This citation is a warning, given extenuating circumstances. No penalty levied. Warning on record.

Touch screen to acknowledge receipt.

Maria scowled, and her face flushed. She turned her back to the wall and bobbed Leon. He squirmed and yawned. She gritted her teeth and calmed herself, swaying gently until he settled.

She read the citation a second time. No fines. No jail time. It said “circumstances”—they didn’t specify what they were, but at least they noted them. The corner of her mouth pulled in resignation, and she pressed her palm to the screen for scanning and identification.

Signed, Maria Costa

The citation swirled, curling itself into a tiny icon of an old-fashioned paper document. The icon split into two, depositing itself into antiquated file folder images representing both her records and the police database.

She was officially “on record.”

Almost immediately, a notice from the Life Center popped up on her wall comm:

Dear Maria Costa,

Congratulations on your new family member.

We have received notification that you have lost/damaged some of your infant care items on your way home. Please report to the Life Center tomorrow for a replacement WellBaby Bag and equipment care briefing. Golden Hours tomorrow are 14:00 to 16:00, so for your convenience, we have scheduled your appointment at 14:45. Failure to appear may lead to fines and notification to security services of noncompliance.

Yours in health,

Life Center, Northwest

Touch screen to acknowledge receipt.

Maria’s lips parted. She blinked at the screen and took in a breath as if to speak, but in the end merely held her hand to the screen again. The message curled in on itself; copies tucked themselves neatly into her files and the vast records of the Life Center. She kept her hand on the display, fingers splayed. For just a moment, she needed something to hold her up.

She wanted to put Leon to bed, change her pad, and eat something. But she should feed him first and change his diaper—there was the changing table Marco had told her about, standing against the side wall. She had to check on food and diapers (did Marco get enough?), and she should start looking for a job. And she had to plug in the shields to recharge for tomorrow’s trip to the Life Center.

She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. What about the dark-haired girl; did she make it home? And what happened to the boys? She imagined the drone took them. She had to imagine that the drone took them, that they didn’t escape and catch up with the girl. That she would be safe.

Leon gurgled and rustled against her shoulder. He was restless; he would wake up screaming soon. She unbuttoned her shirt and unclasped the cup of her nursing bra, then sank down the wall to sit on the floor. She cradled Leon and clenched her teeth as he worked away at her breast. She’d ask Nursemaid Maia about the pain if it lasted too long. She tried to hum a nursery rhyme to distract herself, one her mother used to sing:

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle . . . the cow jumped over the moon . . .

How did it go? She could only remember the new songs.

Leon gummed down on Maria’s nipple, and she sucked in a breath. She slipped a finger into his mouth to readjust his attachment to her breast. She leaned against the wall, thinking about her trip home, about the girl, about how she’d felt running out into the street to help her, and the penalties she’d incurred. After a while Leon wriggled and cried, fed but now wet. Maria refastened her nursing bra and stood, holding his head to her cheek. She smiled and sang quietly as she fished through her WellBaby Bag:

God Bless the Republic,

And God bless the mothers,

And God bless my Mama for helping another.

Then a little louder as she crossed to the changing table:

Mama will raise me independent and free

Because . . .

She laid him on the table.

‘Cause more than the Republic, Mama loves me.

Maria cleaned and changed Leon. Before she dressed him again, she looked down at his soft, plump little body. He clenched her thumb in his tiny fist and cooed up at her from his blanket. She leaned down to kiss him and breathed in his milky, powdery warmth.

“I’ll do my best, little Leon,” she whispered. “I promise.” She scooped him to her chest and filled herself up with his scent.