CLOUD NINE

Chapter 10

"Is this a hospital?" Alizeh whispered to Nina.

In front of them was a simple, one-storied building like a misshapen rectangle which seemed to be built from mismatched frames left over after constructing the residences. As if someone had conveniently forgotten that basic necessity and squeezed it in at the last moment. The lone ambulance stood pitifully silent in a corner as they pushed through the glass doors on the front. There was a small desk beyond which a clerk was sitting with her face propped up on one hand and very conveniently biting the nails of the other. So much for hygiene. She yawned just as they approached the enquiry desk.

"Number?" she sat up straight.

Alizeh looked at Nina, utterly clueless.

"Seven please," Nina put on her most forced smile. The receptionist nodded, pointing towards the set of oak doors leading to the main hospital area.

They passed a rickety set of benches and pathetically dirty corridors to a room designated as the 'EMERGENCY' which was written in dripping ink, right out of a horror movie.

Alizeh silently knocked on the door, pushing it open, half expecting to find skeletons jumping out at her.

The room had a set of iron beds and dirty white sheets on it. On one of the beds, Aileana sat with her hands folded into her lap. She looked so vulnerable, so small right then. Gone was the girl that exuded confidence in every step. Two nights at Cloud Nine and she was so broken. Tears stung in Alizeh's eyes, taking in the picture of her friend,

Nina let out a small cry and engulfed Aileana in a bear hug, "Oh, you poor thing. How did you hurt yourself?"

Aileana unconsciously touched the large white bandage encircling her head, "I had a fit."

"You mean you fainted?"

"No. I am on valproate. I have occasional seizures since I was a kid. Nobody knows why or what triggers the attacks. I guess the panic of my phobia actually set off a seizure...I... "

Just then a doctor entered the room and scanned the three of them from above his gold-rimmed glasses. "So you all are friends or family?"

"Family, " Alizeh declared before either of them could utter anything.

The doctor fixed his gaze on her as if trying to gauge similarities in their features. Finally, he shrugged and said, "Well, you know the bills are 50 bucks for the night."

Aileana's face blanched.

"I'll take it from here." Alizeh piped up.

"But I thought the hospital is a much-needed commodity. Why do we need to pay for it?" that was Nina.

"Because the people working here need to be paid, Miss and Cloud One hasn't spared any portion of the Audra Annual budget for this Cloud, " the doctor answered in a matter-of-fact way before scribbling some notes quickly into his sheet.

"As soon as you pay the bills your cousin, or whoever she is to you, is all clear to go."

He turned to Aileana, "So are you sure there's no underlying medical condition, Miss? Because then we need to run some tests."

"None that I know, Sir," Aileana replied.

Nina looked back at Alizeh in shock. She bit her lip but didn't show any surprise.

Alizeh accompanied the doctor to the cash register and completed the formalities transferring e-cash to them. She took them without a word and a ping in Alizeh's phone alerted her to the e-bill.

She turned back with a sigh to see Nina leading Aileana by the hand. She was slightly limping.

"Sore legs?" Alizeh asked.

"With their level of nursing care, I'd have had bedsores if I stayed here longer," she winced.

Supporting her, the trio hobbled out of the hospital. They flagged down a Cloudcab which dropped them home. Once they were settled on the couch, Alizeh went into the kitchen to prepare some orange juice.

"Why did you lie to the doctor? What if something is really wrong with you?" she insisted.

"Nina. Lots of things are wrong with me. I'm a diseased girl," Aileana huffed.

"But then shouldn't the GP know about it?"

"No," Alizeh interjected, placing the glasses on the table. "because if they know, she'll be deemed unfit for work on this planet."

"And I'll be shipped back to earth to stay with the hundreds of other sick people they left behind on earth to die. Once you're infirm and unable to be a productive citizen, the law of Audra forces you to go stay on earth. Didn't you know the rules, Nina?" Aileana's voice broke.

"I didn't read the bulletin. I...I..." Nina flayed her hands in the air and caught her head, running her hands through her hair in desperation, "I'm an asshole, ain't I?" she concluded.

"That you are," Aileana rolled her eyes.

"So on a more serious note, this stays within us," Alizeh gestured between the three of them.

"Yes," Nina whispered.

"So they're dead?" she asked quietly.

"Who?" Alizeh gulped down her juice in one long sip and the ice clinked against the glass as she put it down.

"The people we left behind?" Nina fidgeted with her hands.

"My grandpa is there," Aileana mumbled.

"Mine too, " Alizeh sighed, "But we can't help it. A rule is a rule. Besides, on the positive side of things, if they're wearing those lead suits we got during the War, then maybe the Earth is still a better place to live in than this Cloud at least. There are pockets of civilizations untouched by the radiation still. They can live free of hazmat suits."

"Will the earth ever heal itself from the trauma? I hear nature has rebuilding capacities," Aileana sat up straight, wincing from the effort.

"Well, we won't be alive till then, I can guarantee you that. Maybe an alien race will finally come with better technologies and usher in a new era of life on this barren planet.

"So you mean to say humans would've moved to the moon or died out altogether by then?"

"Yeah, unless we find a substitute for the earth at least. "

"IN SOME GALAXY FAR AWAY..." droned Nina in a robotic accent.

"You sound like the introduction of some Sci-Fi movies from the 2030s," Aileana mock punched her.

All three of them laughed.