The medical team worked on a woman. She looked like she was in her thirties. She was covered in blood, and one of her limbs had a bad gash.
"Circulate your corpuscles into her vital stream."
the team leader said to one of the members, his voice soft yet stern.
"Your mother will be fine."
I said in a soft tone to the boy sitting beside me outside the operating ward.
He didn't look my way. He just stared at the entrance of the operating room.
He didn't cry, but he looked tired. I'd never seen a kid with such a grave face. He was carrying the burden of that night all alone.
He was struggling to keep his eyes open, exhausted. He unknowingly leaned against my shoulder and nodded off.
I sighed as I sat there, still. The silence was palpable.
After a while, someone from the Ministry of Disaster Management (MDM) came and took him—probably to somewhere safe, where he could stay until the damage was repaired and their livelihood could return.
I felt really bad. I had always thought that I could just try as much as possible—and run away if things seemed too hard or difficult. I never realized how deeply it could affect people.
I waited until sunrise.
"Will that boy's mother be fine?"
Standing in front of me was one of the medical team members—Sasha, someone I was familiar with.
"It's hard to say at this stage. It might go either way,"
she said. Her face looked apathetic, but her voice sounded concerned.
I choked on my words. I didn't know what I should say.
"You should probably go back and take some rest. You have duties next week, right?"
"Yes."
She walked away.
I felt the exhaustion catch up to me. I hadn't slept the entire night. My eyes felt like they were burning.
After sometime, I went back to my dorm.
As part of the National Defence Association, our job was to control and manage disasters—whether small or large scale. This time, it had been a sudden outburst of corpuscle beasts wreaking havoc in a small town. It seemed they weren't wild breeds; they looked like someone's property. Whether this was done on purpose or by accident was still unknown.
The casualties were fewer than expected—only fourteen injured by the end of the event.
Still, I tried my best…
Or did I?
After finishing my report, I decided to rest for the day. One of the benefits of this field is that unless an incident occurs, you're practically on a vacation—except for the occasional report submission or investigation. Seems pretty good, no?
Maybe. But what if I had taken the risk and tried to save that mother along with the kid?
The thought lingered in my mind. My chest felt heavy. I thought that after two years in this field, I would have become numb—but I guess I'm still the same as ever. A coward.
I finally caved in to the exhaustion and fell asleep.