Hurters and Healers

17

I was released from the hospital a few days later. Alex had come to visit me yesterday but hadn't stayed long, just long enough to tell me he would be there to take me back to the compound the next day.

In about a week the reports would start to be released every other day to try to stop them from all being hidden by the government. Once we knew the reports were noticed and receiving public response we would stick with the original plan. It was risky to stick with the plan, but the officers definitely wouldn't be expecting it and our fighters had more training with weapons than before. I really don't know how they had done it but somehow the fighters had gotten access to more weapons and found a way to train with them without being noticed by the officers and soldiers.

Alex and I were walking from the hospital to the compound after I had been released when Alex stopped me on the sidewalk.

"I just thought I should warn you about some of the changes since you've been gone for so long," he told me.

"How much could have changed in only 3 weeks?" I asked, but we both knew that a lot could change very quickly.

"Because you were gone for so long my mom had to appoint another head nurse."

"That's not a big deal. Honestly, it's not as great as I always thought it would be."

"My mom also isn't the leader anymore," he said quietly.

"What do you mean? Who could have replaced her, except you? Wait, is this your way of telling me that you're officially the leader now?"

"No, instead of having a bunch of different compounds in the same area they were all combined into one so your dad appointed one leader between the three compounds, and it wasn't my mom."

"So, who's the leader now?"

"Do you remember Michael?" he asked.

"Not much."

"Well, he's the oldest of the leaders so he was appointed, but he doesn't support us. He thinks we should do as we're told, but he was never an actual fighter so he doesn't really understand why we want to rebel so badly. Why we need to rebel," Alex explained.

"He wasn't a fighter? Didn't he grow up in the compound?"

"Well obviously, but he was never a first pick fighter. He trained a lot but would only fight maybe once a year compared to me who used to fight at least once a week, and not just in training."

"Has anything else changed?" I asked.

"The age for nurses was moved up to 14."

He didn't need to say it for me to know the significance of that. Gracie was only 13 and Michael wouldn't be making exceptions for the people who had already been nurses. In his eyes, she was just born a year too late. I think she was born a year too early and to the wrong family. Don't get me wrong, she's my sister and I love her, but if she were born a year later she would've been better off at a home than in the compound. And if she had been born to a different family then maybe she never would have ended up in the compound.

"Come on, I'm sure you want to see Gracie and Connor and eat the terrible food," Alex took my hand as we started walking again.

We got to the compound and I noticed that it was definitely more crowded than before and there were a lot more faces that I didn't recognize. My stuff had been moved to a new room since I wasn't the head nurse anymore. Alex led me to my new room, which was also on his floor.