Chapter 19 – All Night
Maryam
The young woman turns back to me. “Eyes on you?” she asks, tilting her head to the side. “Why?”
“Um!” I say, panicking a little. “Quick…visual exam!” My hand darts to the pocket of my scrubs and quickly pulls out a light pen, which I use to give the girl a lightning-fast eye exam that she certainly doesn’t need.
She still looks at me strangely for a moment as I confirm that her vision is just fine, but I stand straight, making eye contact with Claudia, who’s set up a table at the front of the room. When I nod, she waves back and bends to speak with one of her counselors, letting her know that this young lady is ready for her chat.
I give the young wolf a smile and confirm that her counselor will be there in a moment before heading for the nursing desk, ready for my next task.
Emma catches up with me as I walk, falling into step. “Crazy, isn’t it?” she whispers, looking around, worried.
“I know,” I say, wrapping my arms around myself – not cold just…worried. So anxious for all of these people, whose futures are a complete mystery.
“Did you notice?” Emma whispers.
I stop my steps, frowning at her, not liking her tone of voice. “Notice what?”
She sighs and then meets my gaze. “The demographics,” she says, lifting one shoulder in a shrug.
I frown at her, not getting it.
Emma steps closer, lowering her voice, looking around like she doesn’t want anyone else to hear. “The patients, Maryam? They’re…nearly all women.”
My mouth falls open as I look around and realize that Emma’s got a point there. There are some young men, mostly in pairs or groups of three – all frail, and quiet, and worried. And one or two old men.
“Where are all the men?” Emma whispers, worried. “And more importantly…May, where are all the kids?”
I look back to her, shocked.
Because she’s right.
Dozens of people here – and we haven’t seen a child all night.
“What – what does that mean?” I whisper, completely freaked out. Emma shifts so that she’s at my side now, both of us looking around at the nearly full tent.
“I don’t know what it means,” she says, shaking her head. “But…half of these women – more than that – are of childbearing age. Surely some of them have kids – but none of them are even upset. If they were separated from their children they’d be crying…”
I nod, agreeing with her. Everyone looks worried and tired, but no one is frantic. I sigh, not getting it. “I’ll…talk to dad. See what he thinks.”
Emma nods. “But now we have work to do?”
“Yup.” I say, nodding too. “It’s not that I don’t want to get to the bottom of it, Ems. Just right now? Our job is to take care of these people – not wonder where their families are.”
We both give each other a grim smile, continuing on to the desk and collecting new assignments from Daniel. We each take an intake sheet and head to the next bunks, continuing to work.
The hours absolutely fly. The tent seems to empty at some points – people who are all patched up heading out, gathered by their counselors elsewhere, making space for more. But whenever it seems we get bunks free, more patients come in.
We nurses don’t learn too much about where these people came from and what happened. Quite frankly, it’s not our job to ask. We pick up bits, but it’s mostly the same as what Jade and Ivy told us – confusion, chaos. It soon becomes clear that the earliest who ran did it because they wanted to – they were looking for a way out. But those who come in later were delayed by injury or ran because they became too afraid to stay.
These are the worst – the ones with tears on their face, looking backward, clearly wanting to go home. I patch them up quietly, trying not to pry or interfere. But to see people wanting to return back to a situation that was hurting them…
God, but by the time the sun rises, my heart aches.
I groan as my newest patient lays back on her bed, shutting her eyes and laying a hand over them, trying to rest – as dad recommended she should – until the transport comes. She’ll need to go to hospital too, though she’s even less happy about it than Jade is. Still – the cut on her foot is not fresh and it’s livid and rotten enough that even she knows that she needs more help than she can get either here or in the Community.
I take a deep breath, forcing myself to turn away, to not judge or pity or…god, feel any of the thousand emotions that run through me.
I turn back to the desk, waiting for my next orders, but Amari – who replaced Daniel several hours ago – shakes his head at me, letting me know there are no new cases for me to attend.
“Cool,” I mutter, putting my hands on my lower back and stretching it as I move for the door. “Breaktime for Maymay.”
My brain empties of thoughts as I walk out into the dawn light – very rare for my silly over-active mind. I exhale slowly, tilting my head back as I take a moment, feeling the dawn light on my eyelids. The exhaustion I’ve been pushing away for hours starts to overtake me, but I push it away again as I hear the rumble of a truck.
I open my eyes, smiling a little as I watch the military transport pull into camp. Nodding, eager to get my patients loaded onto it, I start to turn –
And nearly bang right into Claudia.
She laughs at me, reaching out her hands to steady me as I start to stumble back. “Easy, Maryam,” she says, grinning at me. “You all right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say, only scowling a little in my embarrassment. “We just need to –“
“May, I’ll handle the transport,” she says, nodding to me, smirking. “You’ve been working all night –“
“Well so have you!”
“No, I haven’t,” she says, raising her eyebrows at me. “I got five solid hours between midnight and now. You didn’t notice?”
I sigh, raising a hand to cover my eyes, wondering if it’s exhaustion or idiocy that made me miss that. “I am very dedicated to my work, Claudia,” I say, pretending to be stuck up and too cool to care. “I cannot be bothered to notice everyone’s breaks –“
She laughs at me and gives my shoulders a fond squeeze before dropping her hands. “Seriously, let me handle this – you need to sleep –“
“No,” I say, sighing, putting my hands on my hips as the transport settles into a spot quite close to the tent and a few military personnel start to climb out of it. “Let me…let me see this through. Then I’ll sleep.”
“All right,” she says, a little dubious but letting me make my own choices. “If you say so.”
“I love it when people say that,” I murmur, smirking at her as we both head off to the tent, ready to give our orders for who needs to be transported and now.
The military moves fast, helping people quickly and efficiently into the transport, but still – it takes longer than I thought it would, especially as some patients panic at the last moment, not wanting to go. Eventually, Claudia climbs into the transport along with them, promising to be back by night.
I sigh, knowing that we’ll miss her but…that the patients need her most.
Rafe comes to my side as Claudia ducks into the darkness of the transport. “They’ll be able to get her back tonight?”
He smiles at me. “If you order it, Maryam, it shall be so. They’ll air-drop her if you tell them to.”
I laugh a little, shaking my head and waving to Claudia, and then to Jade and Ivy, who catch my eye from inside. They wave their hands in farewell, too, as the transport starts to pull away. “I don’t know about this limitless power, Sinclair,” I murmur. “It might go to my head. Corruption is imminent.”
“Exciting,” he says, playing along.
The sight of the transport is soon lost amongst the trees and I sigh, turning back to the nursing tent, knowing that we should strip several of the beds and prep the –
“Nah,” Rafe says, prodding my arm with the butt of his rifle. “No way.”
I huff, yanking my arm out of range and giving him a nasty glare. “Don’t you try to push me around with your stupid gun –“
He grins at me. “You’re finished, Maryam.”
My mouth pops open. “Who the hell are you to say when I’m finished!?”
“Someone who watched you stay up all night working –“
“So you didn’t sleep either!”
“Yeah, but all I did was stand around and watch you save people,” he says, bending so his eyes are even with mine, his face very close. “And I’m exhausted! So! Bed!”
“No, now I’m just going to work even harder,” I growl, storming off towards the nursing tent. “Just to prove a point!”
“Maryam!” he calls after me, half sigh half shout.
But I just wave a hand behind me, dismissing his nonsense, ignoring his claims as I head for the desk and plop myself in the chair, turning my attention to the computer, ready to transcribe the piles of handwritten patient data that’s waiting in the inbox.
“Maryam,” Amari says, worried, turning towards me.
“Don’t want to hear it, A!” I say, shaking my head and getting started.
“Whatever,” he says, laughing and turning back to consult with another nurse.
I get started, typing away. But even as I do, my eyelids start to shut. I force them open again and again, cursing myself as I make about a thousand typos. Then I sigh and rest my forehead in my hand. And then I fold my arms down on the desk and rest my head there – because I just need a minute to clear my mind – just…a few seconds…
And then I’ll get started again.
Just…in a second. I’ll get started again in two seconds.
As my eyes fall shut, a shadow falls over my form.