District Three.
Chen Ling pushed open the headquarters' doors and stepped outside.
The thick fog still hadnât dissipated, hanging over everyoneâs hearts like a pall. Figures hurried past carrying stretchersâsome bearing pale, lifeless bodies, others holding bloodied, mutilated survivors. The once-bustling streets were now filled with pained moans and hushed, anxious whispers.
Clad in his black trench coat, Chen Ling stood on the headquarters' steps for a moment before following the stretchers toward the other end of the street.
Next to the enforcer headquarters stood District Threeâs largest clinicâthough "largest" only meant it was roughly the size of a small-town medical center from Chen Lingâs past life.
The two-story clinic was packed to the brim with groaning patients. Red and white stretchers covered the floor, leaving only narrow aisles barely wide enough to squeeze through. The handful of doctors still on their feet were drenched in sweat, weaving through the sea of suffering.
"Doctor⊠Doctor! Please, look at my child firstâheâs not breathing!"
"Doctor! Weâre out of gauze and disinfectant! The blood bankâs almost empty too!"
"It hurts⊠God, it hurts so muchâ"
"This oneâs wound is infected⊠Canât save it. Prep for amputation."
"Doctor! This patient has no vital signsâ"
Moans and sobs reverberated through the clinic. Outside, stretchers lined the sidewalks, stretching from one end of the street to the other, with more casualties arriving every minute.
How many were still waiting for treatment? Two thousand? Three? Chen Ling had lost count.
He stood at the clinicâs entrance, a solitary figure in black amidst the white stretchers. His gaze swept over the hellish scene, his face unreadable, silent as a forgotten statue.
A doctor emerged from the operating room, his hands stained red. Several family members immediately rushed insideâonly for wails of grief to erupt at the sight of the cold corpse on the table.
The doctor stood in the doorway, his eyes filled with boundless sorrow as he surveyed the clinic-turned-inferno.
"This canât go onâŠ" he murmured.
Then, louder, "Abandon all critical patients. Focus on those who still have a chance."
The other doctors froze mid-motion, turning to stare at him. Some opened their mouths as if to protestâbut in the end, silence prevailed.
"Weâre⊠just letting them die?" a nurse rasped.
"We donât have the time or resources to save them." The doctor closed his eyes. "As for the less severely injured, gather them up. Teach them basic wound care and let them fend for themselves."
"...Understood."
The enforcers maintaining order sprang into action, hauling out stretcher after stretcher of gasping, half-dead patients to clear space for those with lighter injuries.
Most were already unconscious. Those still lucid understood what being carried outside meant.
As the procession of stretchers passed Chen Ling, he could see every twitch of agony on their faces, every spark of despair fading from their hollow eyes.
Amid the chaos, the line between life and death had been drawn with brutal clarity. Like a gravely wounded beast, humanity was now gnawing off its own rotting flesh to survive.
The clinic staff cleared a patch of ground further down the street, depositing the abandoned patients there. The bloodstained stretchers formed a grim mosaic, their occupantsâ delirious mutters and pained cries rising like the whispers of Death himself.
They were waiting to die.
"What the hell are you doing?! Why arenât you treating them?!"
"My father was one of the first brought here! How dare you give up on him?!"
"Those Calamities couldnât kill my wife, but youâre just leaving her to die?! What kind of doctors are you?! Youâre no better than the monsters!"
"This is murder!"
The families whoâd been waiting outside erupted. Eyes bloodshot with rage, they charged the clinic, tackling doctors and nurses to the ground. The scene descended into bedlam.
Xi Renjie, who happened to be patrolling nearby, rushed over with a squad of enforcers to restrain them:
"What do you think youâre doing?!"
"Who gave you the right to decide who lives or dies?!" a relative screamed.
"Too many need treatment. We donât have enough supplies or timeâif this continues, more will die."
"Then why does it have to be them?! Weâre all human! Why abandon them?!"
"Because their injuries are too severe."
"That wasnât their fault!"
Xi Renjie faltered. Staring at the red-eyed crowd, he knew further words were useless. With a tired wave, he signaled the enforcersâwho promptly drew their guns, pressing barrels to foreheads until terrified silence returned.
The enforcers herded the protesters outside at gunpoint, restoring a fragile order.
Sighing deeply, Xi Renjie spotted Chen Ling by the entrance and approached.
"You injured?"
"...No." Chen Ling shook his head. "Just passing by."
"Why didnât you help control the riot earlier?"
"I was thinking."
"About what?"
Chen Ling didnât answer. His gaze lingered on the bloodied stretchers at the street corner. The events of recent days connected in his mindâthe sudden material shortages, the factory shutdowns, the severed communications, the encroaching fogâŠ
After a long pause, he uttered words that sent chills down Xi Renjieâs spine, "What if⊠weâre the ones being abandoned?"
Xi Renjie stared blankly. "You meanâ"
"Itâs all too coincidental." Chen Ling looked toward Aurora City. "Hopefully, Iâm overthinking it."
The suggestion left Xi Renjie frowning in thought. The two stood silent on the clinic steps, the air suddenly heavy.
Finally, Xi Renjie murmured, "No⊠Impossible. The seven districts have hundreds of thousands of people. Our factories produce seventy percent of the domainâs supplies. Without us, Aurora City would be crippled⊠Why would they abandon us? Weâll know when Brother Meng returns."
Chen Ling glanced at him.
"And if Aurora City has truly decided to discard District Three⊠do you really think Han Meng will make it back?"