Chapter 1
1
I knew everything there was to know about the infirmary. Where things were, how to calm the chaos, how to train nurses, and what to do when I didn’t know what to do. Two fighters brought in an unconscious teenager which was an oddity for our small compound. Most of the bigger compounds have serious injuries fairly often, but not here. We knew how far to push our fighters here.
“We found him outside, where do you want him?” the taller of the two fighters holding the teenager asked.
“Put him in the backroom,” I told them and followed behind them after I gave my clipboard to another nurse.
“Do you know who he is?” I asked.
“He doesn’t look like one of us, but take his fingerprints and blood. We’ll search the system.” The other one said.
“I need to fix his head and leg first.”
“Not if he isn’t one of us. Our supplies go to our fighters,” the shorter of the two told me.
“What do you do with him if he isn’t one of us?”
“We leave him outside the hospital. Now, get his blood and we can do his fingerprints.” The tall one told me.
I went to the cabinet for what I would need to take a blood sample then gave it to a first-year nurse to take to the lab for DNA testing. The two guys left to take the fingerprints to the security office which left me alone with the mystery guy.
I started searching his pockets for anything to ID him but couldn’t find a wallet or anything. He was probably just the victim of a robbery gone wrong. His head had clearly been hit against a wall, his knuckles showed that he tried to fight back, his leg was broken, and I think he had a few broken ribs.
‘Our supplies go to our fighters’ the one guy had told me. What does someone in the security section even know about how we run things in the infirmary? I cleaned his cuts so that they wouldn’t be infected if we had to take him to the hospital and cleaned the blood off his leg so I could see if it was coming from his leg or if it had just spread from his other cuts. I had just started when one of the security fighters came back in.
“Do what you need to fix him up. He just joined us last week and the idiot already signed up for a fight. We need him ready,” he said.
“Do you have his information?”
“Right here,” he handed me the folder with the kid’s name.
His name is Alan Finden.
“When’s the fight?” I asked.
“Tonight.”
“There’s no way he can fight. His leg is broken, I don’t know how bad yet, and with his concussion, he won’t even be able to use crutches for a few weeks. I don’t even know if he’ll wake up by tonight,” I told him.
“So what are we supposed to do? Forfeit?”
“Use his backup.”
I’d been here for years and it always amazed me that some people here completely lacked common sense.
“I don’t know how good his backup is, I don’t even know how good the kid is!” he yelled.
“So train him better,” I said.
“Listen, my job is to make sure no one is trying to find out what happens here, your job is to heal our fighters. I did my part now you do yours.”
“Your job is making sure no one finds out what happens, not telling nurses that they have to do something impossible. It’s not like I have magical powers to heal him with a snap of my fingers,” I said sarcastically. Clearly, he didn’t appreciate it.
“Whoever is above you needs to have a talk with you about your attitude,” he told me.
“I don’t think my nurses would like if I gave myself a stern talking to.”
“Whatever, get him better,” he said as he walked away.
If he hadn’t walked away I would’ve kicked him out soon.
“Hey Gracie,” I called for my sister, “If he ever comes in hurt make sure you forget to give him painkillers and remember about the people with more serious injuries.”
“Will do Cee,” she told me.
I had two of the support nurses take him for x-rays then a CT scan. While they were gone I went back to the main room to check that everything was okay and since no one was waiting I looked at Alan’s information.
Name: Alan Finden
Height: 6’ 1”
Weight: 147.2 lb
Gender: Male
Age: 16
All the other information that most people have is filled out as they train and fight. Their record is updated at the end of the month.
“You should be getting everything sent to you in a few minutes,” One of the nurses told me as they brought him back.
“Thank you.”
