National Exile: A 21st Century Novel about Nobility, Poverty, and Cruelty

by Rusul A. Altaay

  Chapter 10

  The Hospital

  Some changes started happening in the Burj. Yazan called an emergency meeting where he asked everyone to the main conference room.

  “There have been some changes. One of which involves me as a leader of this unit. They are going to send a new person in the next few days to take my place. I will stay here. I am not going anywhere. Apparently, the administration is afraid that we might turn on them any minute. So, they are sending us a new director. I really want you to show how willing you are to cooperate and follow his new commands. We never received any orders to test or develop any new systems for the past six months. Now, under the new leadership, this will change. So, get ready to do as they ask.” Yazan said.

  “So, we are expected to fight our own people now. That is not what we signed up for.” Rafil, an engineer-soldier said.

  “He is right. When we joined, it was about fighting out-side forces. We are not just some scientists. We are highly trained, and we are more than willing and capable to get in real compact. The whole idea was to protect our people, not kill them. You know that they will force us to fight… Just like they did to every other branch.” Samir, scientist-soldier added.

  “Do you think I don’t know that? My hands are tight…And if we make it clear that we are not going to follow any orders… We are as good as dead.” Yazan said.

  “This is not acceptable.” Rafil said

  It is important to note that Rafil was totally against fighting civilians, even though half of his face was burned when civilians attacked his unit few months before.

  The meeting took about three hours. Everyone kept going back and forth about the right thing to do. There was no such thing as the ‘right thing to do’. They all agreed to follow the new commander’s orders as long as they don’t involve the people getting hurt.

  Later on that night, few of them stayed at the dining hall. They kept talking about what might happen to them. Rayan entered the dining hall looking a bit worried.

  “Has anyone seen my brother, Waseem? I have been looking all over for him. He disappeared right after the meeting.”

  “Maybe he just stepped outside for a walk. Don’t worry.” Rafil said.

  The night ended at that. What happened the next morning was very disturbing.

  “HELP… Anybody HERE?” Some local man screamed at the entrance of the Burj.

  “What’s going on here? Who are you and how did you get in here? SECURITY…” Yazan yelled.

  “I’m really sorry, Sir. He’s saying it is an emergency. Please, hear him out.” One of the security guards said.

  “Your friend, I think his name is Waseem, he was shot.” The local man answered.

  “EMMA… Find Rain… Quickly…” Yazan said loudly.

  “Sir, Rain left this morning. I did not ask where he was going.” She replied.

  Yazan ran outside to where Waseem was and held him back to the Burj. He was covered by blood and barely able to talk. By that time, everyone was a wake asking about all the screaming they heard. They came down stairs and saw Yazan holding Waseem whose chest was covered by blood and looked almost dead.

  “Someone find a medical kit…” Yazan yelled.

  Rayan, who was shocked seeing his brother in that stage, did not know what to say or do. He just sat there and repeated over and over again,

  “Brother, please do not leave me. Who did this to you?”

  “This is crazy. We have to take him to a hospital. His wound seems very deep and the bleeding is not stopping.” Sidra said.

  “Get the car, now…” Yazan said.

  “Most of the roads are closed. Driving might not be a good idea, but we are running out of time. I just called Rain. He said he’ll meet us there.” Sidra said.

  Yazan decided to drive himself since he knew the roads better than anyone. Rayan kept holding his brother’s hand as the car was moving.

  “Please, stay with me and don’t you dare die on me.” Rayan said.

  Rafil gave Yazan directions as some of the roads were closed, and some places where not safe to drive by at all. It took them half an hour to get to the hospital which was long enough for Waseem to completely pass out. They finally got to the hospital and brought Waseem inside. They were stunned to what they saw in there.

  “What on earth is this place? Yazan, you are sure that this is the hospital? Right?” Sidra said.

  “Yes, it is indeed. Get Waseem over here…Now…” Rain replied after seeing them walk from the door.

  “Where were you all day? My brother is dying and you were nowhere to be found…” Rayan screamed at him.

  Rain completely ignored Rayan’s question. He ordered the nurses to bring a wheel chair. They had run out of beds to put him on.

  “He lost a lot of blood. We are going to need you to donate some blood for him. You must be a match since you are brothers.” Rain said.

  “We are half-brothers.” Rayan said.

  “What? It’s ok. Nurse… Check him for a match. We need B+.” Rain said as he thought, “This explains why Rayan is white while his brother looks Asian.”

  They took Waseem to the operation room. Rain assisted the doctors the entire time the operation took a place. In the waiting room, the guys could not even sit down because there was no place to sit in the first place. They just kept looking around with surprised faces.

  “I’m really sorry, but are we not going to talk about what this hospital looks like? I mean how can a patient survive in such a place?” Rafil asked rhetorically.

  “Excuse me, nurse? What is going on in the hospital today?” Sidra asked one of the nurses who seemed very busy.

  “What do you mean? That is how the hospital always looked like. The difference is, now, we get hundreds of people every day.” The nurse replied. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do.” She added.

  “This place is just… A side from the fact that it is super busy, it is also super dirty. There is blood, napkins, and even thrown food on the floor. It looks like no one cleaned in years. And let’s not forget the humans’ body bags all over the place.” Rafil said.

  “Finally, I was looking for you guys. I came as soon as I could. I really thought I was in the wrong place. Are you guys sure that this is a hospital?” Mai said while running towards them.

  “It seems that way.” Sidra replied.

  “I just walked by the bathrooms. I don’t even know where to begin. It is disgustingly dirty. Most of them are over flown, and the sewage water is everywhere.” Mai added.

  “That is not what I’m worried about. It seems that they are missing some of the basic equipment and medicine. I heard one of the nurses say that they ran out of almost all kinds of bandages and gauzes. Something as basic as that… This sounds like the work of the administration. They must’ve stopped all kinds of medicine and necessary help from coming.” Rayan said.

  “Let’s not discuss something like that in here. And yes, you are right. I have heard that they are not allowing any help to come to the hospitals. I just had no idea that it is as bad.” Yazan said.

  After nearly four hours, Rain was the first to walk out of the operation room. He looked exhausted. He came to his friends who could not wait to hear the good news. He looked at Rayan and said,

  “I want you to know that this is life. We all have a day when we say goodbye to this world. I am so sorry. Today was Waseem’s.”

  Rayan could not believe his ears. His only brother was gone.

  “He was just a kid.” He said as he fell on the floor crying.

  In that same moment, a doctor came and said,

  “I’m sorry. You need to remove the body as soon as possible. We have a lot of people waiting, and we don’t have enough beds. You have five minutes if you can’t take him now, we will be forced to keep him on the floor until you do.”

  “My brother is dead and that is all you can say… Do you have no feelings?” Rayan screamed as he tried attacking
the doctor.

  “I lost my son just last week due to the lack of medication. So, do not talk to me about feelings. You have four minutes.” The doctor replied angrily.

  The doctor said that as he freed himself from Rayan. Then, he just left. No one blamed him. He was just as human as everyone else. He was just doing his job and trying to save as many lives as possible.

  “We have to move him right now. Let’s take him back to the car and decide what we’re going to do.” Rafil said.

  They just decided to go to the cemetery right away since there was no place to keep him. There were no places in a fridge available for any bodies. Rain wanted to stay in the hospital and keep helping other patients. Yazan, Rayan, Rafil, Mai and Sidra all left. They took Waseem and walked out of there. They put him in the car slowly and gently. That entire time in the car, Rayan could not believe that his brother was gone. Everything happened so fast. He did not even get a chance to say goodbye. He just looked at his brother’s cold face and kept apologizing.

  “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I brought you into this mess. It’s my fault. I could not even protect you.” He said. “No, these are not tears. My eyes are just watery for some reason.”

  “This may not be the best time to tell you this, but I think that your brother was killed by a sniper.” Sidra said.

  “What? So, you are saying that his death was not accidental?” Rayan asked.

  “Not according to what Rain told me before we left. The bullet that rested in his chest… Does not seem... Someone wanted him dead, and we need to find out why.” Sidra said.

  “We will talk about this after we bury him. We finally got to the cemetery. We will be lucky if we even found an empty spot.” Yazan said.

  Rafil and Yazan got out of the car and went to ask for an empty spot for the body to be buried. The grave yard keeper told them that it had been full for a very long time, and they should probably just burry him in the woods. They discussed it. Rayan had no choice but to agree. Out of respect, the dead have to be buried as soon as possible. Rayan wanted his brother to just rest in peace. They drove into the woods where they found a place that had many other graveyards. They covered him with a cloth and put him down in the whole that they had to dig.

  “After my mother died because of illness, my father remarried. Soon after, they had Waseem. I was so happy to finally have a brother. My stepmother was just like a real mom to me. We lived such a happy life until few years ago. Our parents went to do some shopping, and they both were killed in an explosion. I took care of Waseem. And I, later on, convinced him to join the Burj with me. I wish I did not.” Rayan said that as he was putting the dirt on his brother’s final resting place.

  It didn’t take him long to just burst in tears. He could not stop crying. The pain in each and every one of them was too much to handle. At that moment, Rain was able to find them. He wanted to be there for his friend. As the prayed for Waseem, Rayan said,

  “I don’t even know why I’m praying? I don’t even believe in God.”

  It was a very long day, and all of them were really tired. As they were sitting down between the graveyards, a family came looking for a grave for their kids. It was a mother and a father looking for a place to bury their four kids. What a painful seen. Yazan and Rain walked towards them and asked if they needed any help. They politely rejected their offer. They said that they wanted to bury their kids themselves.

  They could not ask what happened. The tears in the mother’s eyes, and the pain on the father’s face were clear indication of what they must have went through. Three kids and one infant were completely covered by blood. Their parents had covered them with cloth. They still could not look at them even when they were putting them under the ground.

  “Rayan, if God does not exist as you believe, who’s going to serve justice?” Sidra asked.

  “I have no idea.” He replied.

  “So, those kids were killed and buried. They went to the ground. Their killers one day will die as well. And they will also go to the ground. Are you telling me… that’s it? Everyone just dies equally? So, you do ‘good’ all your life, and you go to the same place as someone who did ‘evil’ all their lives. How is that fair again?”

  “I never said it was fair.” Rayan mumbled.

  “Believing in God is what kept us going for the longest time… Knowing that if justice is not served on earth, it will be served by the highest power... I couldn’t have possibly gone through what I have, if I did not believe in the Day of Judgment.” Rain said.

  “Speaking of justice on earth, Sidra? Do you still think that we should not declare war on the administration? How much longer do we have to keep seeing families like this? When does this end?” Yazan said.

  “When do we start?” Sidra replied.