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

by Rusul A. Altaay

  Chapter 30

  Coma

  “Oxygen mask? Where did Rain find that exactly? We are in the middle of nowhere outside the city.” Sidra thought as she was walking up trying to remove the Oxygen mask of her face.

  “Do not remove that. You still need it.” A nurse said.

  “Where am I?” Sidra asked.

  “You are in a hospital. Someone brought you in about a week ago. He was in a bad shape himself.” The nurse explained.

  “A week? Has it been that long? Where is Rain? I have to see him.”

  “Please do not move. You just had a surgery.”

  “What surgery? Where’s Rain? And where is this place anyway?”

  “It’s a private hospital at the borders of Estil. A helicopter brought you in.”

  “Please, listen to the nurse. Trying to move will make things worse for you. I’m afraid we have some bad news.” A doctor said as he entered the private room.

  “Please do not tell me that Rain is dead.” She said.

  “Oh, no. He will be fine. I wanted to tell you that you have lost a kidney. We did everything we could to save it. The damage was just irreversible.” He explained.

  “Ok, what’s the bad news?” She asked.

  “That was the bad news, ma’am.” He said.

  “You must be kidding… Is that it? A kidney is all I lost?”

  “As far as I know, yes.” He said.

  “Wow, Thank God. I must be the luckiest girl in Estil. I know people who lost arms, legs, eyes or even more valuable organs in a much smaller explosion. If a kidney is all I have lost, that’s great. Now, can I see my fiancé, please?” Sidra asked.

  Surprised to her reaction, the doctor and the nurse shook their heads agreeing to let her see Rain. They took her in a wheel chair to Rain’s room, where he was sleeping attached to machines.

  “He’s in a coma. The kind we don’t know when the patient might wake up from. Other than that, he’s recovering very well form the wounds. I guess, he’s even luckier than you were. He did not lose any organs.” The nurse said.

  “Then, why is he in a coma?” She asked as she got closer to his bed.

  “We don’t know. He was fine when you were brought in. He was covered by blood. We took care of him, and he seemed fine. He wanted to stay by your side all the time. But we, like all other hospitals, were short-staffed. So… He helped us for days. Two days ago we found him unconscious by your bed side. The doctors still aren’t sure if it was caused by exhaustion.” The nurse told Sidra.

  “Always thinking of others even when he can’t help himself. I’m so proud of him.” Sidra said. “The news… I need to watch the news… Do you have a TV?”

  “I’m afraid this is not a good idea.” The nurse replied.

  “I’m afraid you’re going to have to let me. I need to know what exactly happened.” Sidra said.

  Sidra still wishes that she had listened to the nurse that day and not turned on the TV. A speech by president Lion was being repeated on TV almost all day ever since the incident. She listened to only half of it before she turned the TV off.

  “But… I promise you that the loss of nearly a million innocent people will not be in vain. We will fight those responsible to the day we die. It’s in my deepest regrets to announce the complete destruction of the capital. As of today, Estil will remain with no capital until we avenge the dead. May this great nation get back on its feet like never before… May those who were killed rest on peace. And may their souls and kind spirits protect our nation from similar attacks.”

  “No capital? Spirits protecting us? Million have died? Has he gone mad? And why is he still alive if there is no capital anymore? What on earth had happened?” Sidra thought.

  She looked around her and found one of the computers that are used in the hospitals. She unplugged it from all of its connections and shut it down. She, then, kept looking for her necklace. It was nowhere to be found. She asked the nurse about it.

  “Oh, do you mean the neckless that was around your neck when you came in? I gave it to Mr. Rain. I’m not sure where he put it.”

  “Show me his stuff.” Sidra said.

  After giving her Rain’s stuff, she found her neckless in one of his pockets. She took it and gently ran it over her bracelet. The neckless turned green. Then, she cracked open the laptop and put the neckless in a port she found on the motherboard. After that, she turned the computer back on. The computer ran normally with no special changes to the operation system. She accessed a web page where she was asked to enter a user name and a password. By doing so, the neckless started flashing with green light.

  She kept working and entering codes to the computer for minutes. When she was done, she had access to one of the major satellites that were/are orbiting earth right above Estil. That satellite records everything for at least a month. Accessing footage, that had happened a week before, was not a problem. She focused on the capital moments before the big explosion happened.

  A beam of massive energy was focused right on the center of the capital. In moments, the entire city was unseen because of the smoke. The explosion caused a huge cloud. It did indeed look like the bombing on Hiroshima during the Second World War. Sidra did not know that it was the doing of the Siwaar project. It was not long before the screen started getting some interference. The entire computer just shut down, and the necklace inside turned off.

  “No… Don’t go…” She said. “I refuse to accept this. There is no way the entire capital is gone. What is this? They want to rule a country with no people?”

  “Miss Sidra… You have some visitors.” A nurse told her.

  “Hello… Good to see you… Sitting on the floor… with… of course… a computer in front of you.” Yazan said with a smile.

  “Hey… Where were you? I don’t know what’s going on. What happened to the capital?” She asked.

  “A lot had happened.” He said.

  “Yeah… I gathered as much. The nurse said I had visitors. Who came with you?” She asked.

  “Sidra… It is good to finally meet you.” Commander Hazeem, Rain’s father, said.

  “You? What are you doing here? Did you come to finish what you started months ago? I’m still suffering from your men’s torture.” She said.

  “Please, try to understand that I had nothing to do with that. In fact, I’m the one who got you and Rain out of the capital on time.” Hazeem said.

  “Should I be grateful or something?”

  “What happened to Rain?” Hazeem asked ignoring her comment.

  “They told me he went into a coma right before I woke up.”

  “What happened was just too much to bear. Especially, if you think you are responsible for all of the lost lives.” Hazeem said

  “What are you talking about?” Sidra asked.

  “Sorry… I think he should tell you himself. Whatever happened… You have to convince him that it was not his fault. Get well…We will need the two of you with full energy soon enough.” Hazeem said.

  “What happened to the capital?” Sidra said.

  “You will know everything when the time comes. For the time being focus on nursing your body back to health. I’ll be back in a week.” Hazeem said as he turned around.

  “Wait…” Sidra said.

  Commander Hazeem left without saying another word. He left leaving Sidra behind not sure what he was talking about. After few days, Rain’s health was getting better. It took him a while to finally wake up.

  “What is that? Did I fell asleep? And why does by back hurt?” Rain asked as he was waking up.

  “Sir, you are in the hospital. You went into a coma for days.” A nurse told him.

  “Coma? What do you mean? I was just fine. The last thing I remember was a phone call I had with my uncle… My uncle? He… Oh… No… Sidra… Is she ok… My head hurts.” He said that as he put his hands on his head and closed his eyes as if he was screaming inside.

  “Sir, please try to relax. Don�
��t think about anything. You have been through a lot. Let me call the doctor.” The nurse said.

  “Mr. Rain, I am glad to see you well. Please relax. Everything is fine. Don’t worry. It was not a life threatening situation. We believe that the head trauma you suffered was triggered by emotions, which led to your coma. Your brain can only handle so much at a time. Try to not think about anything.” The doctor explained.

  “Where is Sidra? The girl I was with? Is she ok?” Rain asked.

  “I’m fine. Welcome back to planet earth.” Sidra said with a straight face as she entered the room.

  “Hey… You are ok. I’m sorry they could not save your kidney.”

  “I’ll live.”

  “What’s wrong? Why the straight face? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

  “I am. Just focus on getting better.”

  “Please make sure you do not exhaust yourself Mr. Rain. Miss Sidra… a word, please?” The doctor said.

  “Yes, Sir.” Sidra replied and followed him outside the room.

  “I’m not sure what’s going on between the two of you. But whatever it is, you have to keep it behind you and not mention it. He’s been through enough.” The doctor quietly told Sidra.

  “That’s the problem. Nothing was left behind. Never mind. I will do my best to keep him comfortable.” She said.

  “Sidra? I think we need to talk.” Rain said as he saw her finishing her talk with the doctor.

  “No, we do not. Just get better, ok?” Sidra said and thought, “I’m afraid if we talk, I might end up killing him.”

  “Ok… Have you contacted the Burj?” Rain said while thinking, “I think she already knows.”

  “No, but your father was here few days ago. He did not say anything.”

  “Please, do me a favor and contact Yazan. I need to talk to him.”

  “Sorry, but you will be getting no phone calls for days.”

  Few days later, Yazan called Sidra asking to speak with both of them. It sounded urgent.

  “Rain? Where are you? And what happened to you? We have a huge problem. We need all of your help.”

  “What problem? What’s going on over there?”

  “An uprising… They think that the Burj is responsible for the destruction of the capital. We got info that people are on their way as we speak to destroy the Burj.”

  “What? What is my father doing about it?”

  “They are all civilians. We can’t just shoot them. We need Sidra back to help reprogram the protective electric walls.”

  “You want her to electrically shock the civilians now? Besides, the electric wall was damaged years ago. No one has tried to reactivate it due to the lack of electricity in the entire country.” Rain said.

  “We fixed the walls. Sidra was working on it for months before everything went crazy. She never got it finish though. When commander Hazeem came along, I told him about it and he said not to finish fixing it. Then, the capital was destroyed…. and all of its electricity is under our control now.” Yazan said.

  “I never agreed to rebuild the electric system of the walls so you can shock civilians with it.” Sidra said.

  “So, it’s true? Is that what you and Yazan were hiding?” Rain said.

  “I guess we all have things to hide after all.” Sidra replied.

  “We are wasting time. They might be civilians, but they mean business. We can’t afford for the Burj to get into the wrong hands once again. You know they will only destroy whatever they can.” Yazan added.

  “Rain, I think it’s time we go back to the Burj and join them.” Sidra said.

  “I’ll ask my father to send someone to get us. If we leave on our own, it will take us days to go back.”

  “Good. We’ll be waiting. And be careful you two.” Yazan said as he got off the phone.

  “You know what I have done. And the look on your face shows how mad you are at me. I need to explain.”

  “Explain what exactly? The fact that the capital literally disappeared?” Sidra said.

  “This is not fair. I had no idea that this was the plan. I was as shocked as anyone else. They told me it was just going to be a threat tool.”

  “And that justifies allowing one person to have control on such a tool? Oh, by the way, I don’t know if you have heard. But president Lion is very much alive. He was not even in the capital that day.”

  “I know…” Rain said as he looked down.

  “They told me that Siwaar can only burn small objects from outer space. I didn’t know that they had such massive energy.” Sidra said after she calmed down.

  “It’s called Dury. It doesn’t have any of the radioactivities associated with Uranium.” Rain said.

  “This have gotten out of control.” She said.

  It only took commander Hazeem few hours to send a helicopter to take Rain and Sidra out of the hospital. They were doing ok. Not in a great shape, but ok.