Chapter 3

Christiana got to her workplace at 3:30pm, earlier than her scheduled shift, after being called in for an emergency. She worked at Central City Hospital as a surgery nurse.

The hospital was almost filled with patients. "What happened, Lily?" she asked the hospital attendant. She had a close relationship with most of the staff; some could even be referred to as her best friends.

The hospital was almost filled with patients.

"We don't know. They brought them in this morning with the same symptoms, and the victims are from different families,"Lily said, her breath shaky and worry written all over her face

"That's so bad. No wonder Dr Reg couldn't wait till my shift." Christy watched as another family brought in a little girl; she could tell the girl was the same age as Taby.

"Doctor!" A man and woman, who appeared to be her parents or guardians, called out for a doctor.

Christy rushed over and grabbed a stretcher.

"What happened to her?" she asked as she rolled her towards the children's ward.

"She was fine yesterday, but this morning she suddenly lost consciousness during breakfast," her mother said, tears streaming down her face.

"What's her name?"

"Alita. Ten years old," the father quickly answered.

Christy checked her temperature. Her skin was burning hot, almost as if she’d placed her hand over a flame.

"She's running a fever. Prep an IV," Christy instructed the other nurses.

"Please save my daughter." The mother grabbed onto Christy's coat.

Christy held her hands and looked into her eyes. It felt like she was looking into herself; she was a mother herself, so she understood her better.

"We will do everything we can to save her," she said. Reassured by Christy's confidence and the fact that she had a senior nurse uniform on, the woman went to stand beside her husband.

Just then, Dr Reg appeared. "Christiana, I need you in the Theatre now!"

"Doctor, there's an emerg—"

He paused, then looked around, his face contorted into a deep frown.

"Let the other nurse handle it," he said.

Christy wanted to protest, but Dr Reg disappeared just as fast as he came. He was the hospital's Managing Director and chief surgeon; she had no right to refuse him.

Christy immediately gave the nurses instructions before following Dr Reg inside the Theatre. The floating board had appeared before her, but she had immediately closed it, locking the screen from reappearing without instructions.

The surgery took a whopping four hours, and when Dr Reg finally did the last stitches, Christy was delighted the patient had been saved. Her mind had been with that little girl they had brought in earlier.

Christy decided to change into her regular coat before checking up on the little girl. In the changing room, she opened the system, A wave of heat and cold rushed through her body as she stared at the several saved profiles

[New individual detected]

Name: Alita, 10 years old

Health: very sick

Cause of sickness: Ru-Zero

Death date: 15th February

“No, no, no, no, no.” Christy whispered under her breath, she ran with everything she had, her whole body trembling. It felt like losing her own child; her heart hammered as if it would burst out of her ribcage.

She had just gotten to the ward when her legs turned to jelly at the sight of Alita's poor mother weeping on the floor.

As if on cue, the woman turned and their eyes met. Something passed over her face.

"You…" In a flash, she held Christy's collar, dragging her towards the pale body of Alita.

"How could you let her die? I trusted you." Her husband and the other nurse present came to pull her off Christy, but she shoved them away. Christy looked everywhere but the woman's eyes.

"What type of woman are you? You left my daughter here with the junior nurse. Look what your carelessness caused!" she screamed into her face.

"Stop it, please, it's not her fault," the husband said as he tried to get to her.

The woman’s eyes burned with such raw fury that made a horrible memories came rushing back to Christy.

The memory of that pit came rushing back—the place where the burrowers had dragged her children to and she had followed without batting an eyelid, fought through swarms of Burrowers, knowing fully well she wasn't going to survive.

In her past life, she had never even thought about how the victims’ families felt. She had acted strict and sometimes cold towards them. She had justified it by telling herself that everyone would eventually die. Now she realized this: a mother's world was her children.

It took security and a handful of nurses to finally tear her off Christy. Her final words, in tears, were:

"You will suffer the same fate as I have.

Christy knew she wouldn't forget those words easily. If anything, they only strengthened her resolve.

Christy thought, "Ru-Zero in this timeline didn't wait until March to appear. It's already in Central City, and it will spread soon."

By noon the next day, Christy finally left the hospital and headed to the market.

She was still shaken up from yesterday's event. Still, she convinced herself she needed to stay strong. That was the only way she and her babies would survive this hell.

She drove to the market, but before then, she had posted on her Kottle handles about a job vacancy for several posts, like structural engineer, plumber, security contractor, metalworker, and many more.

Seconds later, people were actually sending messages and CVs. She thought reviewing them could wait; first, she had to get land. She had a family farm, but would her mother and sister let her use it?

Christy was lost in thought when her phone rang. It was Judas, her now ex husband.

Just the perfect person to ruin her mood, she thought.

She connected her phone to her car and picked up.

"What?"

"What do you think you're doing, Christiana?" Judas's voice rang out.

Christy rolled her eyes, clearly not in the mood for his attention. She knew he had seen her post on Kottle and thought he could flex his masculine authority here. This wasn't the White House; he was only the mayor of Central City, not her employer.

"What do you think you're doing?" Judas asked again.

"I heard you the first time," Christy said, "but I'm not sure you want to know."

Her voice was calm but laced with poison.

"Jesus Christ, Christiana, I asked because I want to know what you're up to. You made a promise not to jeopardize my political career just because I divorced you for another woman, and in exchange, you get to keep the children. Remember?" he reminded her.

Christy could feel the fear laced in his voice. Of course he thought everything she did had to do with his political ambitions and his other wife. Christy scoffed. "The world doesn't revolve around you, Judas!"

"What do you mean by—"

Christy immediately ended the call, her foot pressing hard on the accelerator, her heart hammering in her chest.