In The Bird Song | TWD

chapter 24 - Lay of the land

Harlow pov

I have been stuck in the same bright hospital room for 5 days and the doctor finally just went to go get officer ross so he can give me the rundown off this place before I'm discharged. I have occupied myself trying to keep track of time that's passed since I had my existential crises about never knowing what day I am on. If I did my estimations right then I'm pretty sure it's been 3 weeks and six days since I last saw carl.

Even though I know that number wont be 100% accurate its comforting to know that its not actually been an eternity since I saw my loved ones last despite it feeling like it has been.

I lose my train of thought when the door opens and a man that I recognise from the polaroid photo and know to be officer ross enters the room and sits on my bed.

"Our medic says you're getting discharged so I'm going to explain some things to you and I would appreciate it if you would not interrupt me okay." He says bluntly and I nod to show my understanding.

"Life in the unit is simple, there is 4 ranks and you are at the bottom. Rank 1 is the workers, rank two is the skilled workers, rank three is the army and rank four is specialised army. The workers all live and stay on the bottom floor, the skilled workers are on the second floor, the army is on the third and the specialised army is on the fourth.

Every morning at 6am there are morning announcements which are mandatory to attend and are held in the largest lecture room which is on the bottom floor. After announcements all the workers go to job assignment which is in the canteen where you will form a line and someone from the army will show you the list of jobs that need done that day where you then choose which one you want to do. The harder the job the higher it pays.

We use the old-world currency but everything is rounded to the nearest dollar. Every day the shops open at 8pm in the same canteen that job assignments are given out. The shops are where you can buy anything you need and can afford however certain shops will not be open every day.

The shops are run by members of the army as they are the only ones trusted enough to manage supplies. Obviously, you know that we have medical treatment available however from now on it will not be free and I warn you it is quite expensive. We give anybody we collect free medical treatment upon arrival so they have a fighting chance at surviving in the unit however our generosity ends there I'm afraid.

The only other thing that is free is water, all of the unit's water comes from the river that runs through the gardens at the back of the building. It is fresh and perfectly safe to drink I assure you.

You may only drink and collect water from the stream you are forbidden to wash or clean things in it because that would risk contamination. There is no working plumbing here so everyone does there business outside in the latrines.

You should know we have strict rules and if you are caught breaking them the punishments can range from solitary confinement to public execution.

The rules are simple, stealing of any kind is punishable by death if you are caught. Murder is also punishable by death if caught however I'm afraid people are still killed and if we don't see it we cant punish anyone so if you stumble across a dead body it is a rule that you must stap it through the brain.

There are clocks on the walls so you will always know the time so do not worry about missing announcements.

Finally, nobody is aloud to leave the unit without express permission and if you try you will be shot and killed immediately. We have watchtowers surrounding the unit that are armed 24/7 by our trusted army.

Oh, I forgot one thing, anything you arrived with will be confiscated and redistributed since everything must be earned here. The only exception to this is your clothes that you came in wearing will be returned and you will be given a knife for protection."