A Hospital in Another World?

"Three cases have been discovered at 37 Gladstone Street."

"Four cases have been discovered at 25 Camerons Street, belonging to three families."

"Two cases have been found at 37 Alamo Street..."

The messages kept coming in, one after another, to the infectious disease hospital. In front of Garrett, on the large map, toy figurines as tall as a fingertip were placed one by one, quickly clustering into a small bunch.

—Most of them were within an area deliberately highlighted in yellow.

Garrett’s brows furrowed and never relaxed again. This area was deeply imprinted in his memory, spanning two entire blocks in the lower-middle-income district. Twelve buildings, all owned by the same noble, all supplied with water by this noble’s private water company—

In Nevis City, apart from the garden district, the water supply was maintained by the centralized water facilities of the Spring Water Temple. The only exception was the original private water company... And among the areas served by the private water company, the largest was the one covering the noble’s twelve buildings!

Garrett clenched his fists tightly. He knew, he just knew! Having this hazard in the city was a ticking time bomb!

The current issue was, what exactly was the outbreak...

"Bring all the patients, everyone living with the patients in their homes, to the infectious disease hospital! Send four people to Black Crow Swamp, take environmental samples from all the patients’ homes, their drinking water, food, clothes, toilets! Send one person to the Temple of the War God and the Spring Water Temple, and try to get as many healers to come and help as possible!"

...

Madam Beland twisted the water tap.

The water was somewhat yellow and very weak. She murmured, "Damn them all," and skillfully caught the water in a copper pot, beginning to prepare dinner:

Little Eli found a job yesterday, he deserves a good meal;

Tommy did well in his exams yesterday, he should be rewarded, he’s graduating from general education school next year, hopefully, he can find a job as a clerk;

Should little Lila be sent to school next year?

Hmm, it depends on how much her brothers earn. If they earn enough, they could send Lila to literacy classes, and the family could move back to the district they used to live in.

Not like now, where two teenage boys, a little girl, and herself, four people, are crammed into one room...

"Mommy, Mommy!" the five or six-year-old girl pouted and tugged at her skirt. Madam Beland turned and touched her daughter’s hair: "Lila, what’s wrong?"

"Mommy, I need to go to the bathroom!"

"Go on, hurry back." Madam Beland advised. Listening to her daughter’s pitter-patter running out of the room, Madam Beland suddenly felt sad, pulled up her apron to wipe the corner of her eyes:

"If only the old man were still alive... Lila is already six and still has to use the public toilet in the hallway, we don’t even have a washroom at home..."

She put down her apron and continued her work. The vegetables needed washing, slicing; a large piece of salted fish cut into three smaller pieces, two larger and one smaller; several potatoes washed for a thick potato soup, plus a pot of oatmeal porridge...

The middle-aged widow worked efficiently. As she prepared the dinner ingredients, she suddenly felt something was wrong:

Why hasn’t her daughter come back yet? It’s just a trip to the toilet, why is it taking so long? Lila is usually very obedient, she always tells her before going out to play...

Hesitating, she heard a series of heavy footsteps rushing up the stairs. Madam Beland quickly opened the door, only to see a group of people in black thumping past the hallway. Frightened, Madam Beland hurriedly closed the door but worried, she quietly pushed the door open a crack to peek through.

The group went straight to the end of the corridor, their footsteps turning, seemingly entering the public washroom. Shortly after, they came out collectively. Madam Beland peeked through the door gap, only to see one of them holding a little girl with reddish-brown hair, her limbs dangling limply down, seemingly her daughter!

"Lila?!"

Madam Beland was shocked and immediately rushed out the door. Before she could reach her daughter, one of the men in black stopped her and questioned:

"Your daughter?"

"Yes..."

"You live here? How many people in your household? Where are the others?"

"Two more sons... Eli’s at work, Tommy’s at general education school..."

"Address!"

As he spoke, his right hand pointed, and a tip of light flashed, shining on Madam Beland’s face. She was bewildered and, somehow, murmured out the address. The leading man in black waved his hand:

"Take her! Go to her house for samples! You two, split up, bring her sons here!"

Immediately, two men in black pushed her aside, barging into the door. Madam Beland was shocked: "Commander... I..."

She wanted to plead but didn’t know what her family had done wrong, from where to even start begging. Between urgency and fear, suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, and she crouched down, clutching her stomach.

"Don’t be afraid." In her extreme panic, suddenly, a young man stood out, reaching out to support her. He bent slightly, his voice soft:

"There’s been an outbreak in this building, and your daughter is sick, too. We’re taking her to a specialized hospital. You and your two sons might also have been infected—seeing how you’re not feeling well right now—according to the latest regulations issued by the public health department, it’s best to go for observation as well."

He half-dragged, half-supported Madam Beland down the stairs and onto a carriage. The small carriage was crammed with seven or eight people, all sick and groaning in pain. Madam Beland hugged her daughter, slightly reassured, then jumped up from her seat:

"My oatmeal porridge! The stove isn’t turned off!"

"...Send someone to handle it!"

The carriage moved on to more remote areas. The location chosen for the infectious disease hospital was less than a kilometer away from Garrett’s mage tower. Madam Beland, holding her daughter, got off the carriage only to see the front of the large building bustling:

"Quick, quick, quick!"

"This quick won’t do! Stretcher, stretcher!"

"Where’s the priest?"

"Another carriage? The second floor is already full, send to the third floor!"

"But Leon, the third floor is for respiratory infectious diseases!"

"There are no patients now! Send them up! The sir has arrived, I’ll explain to him!"

In the midst of chaos, Madam Beland held her daughter tightly, afraid to let go. Soon, someone came to greet them:

"Is the little girl sick? Can she walk? If she can’t walk—bring a stretcher over! Madam, are you feeling unwell? If you’re unwell, go with the little girl; if not, go to the observation area—"

Madam Beland looked around. Just standing at the door for a moment, she saw at least three priests, running past. They couldn’t afford the priests’ treatment fees... For families like theirs, getting sick meant enduring it on their own, at most, buying some medicine...

"I’m fine..." Madam Beland, enduring another wave of abdominal pain, gritted her teeth:

"Can I stay with my daughter? She’ll be scared without seeing me..."

"People without illness should go to the observation area." The young man greeting her was fully equipped with a hat, mask, gloves, prepared as if for a great enemy. His eyes still maintained a smile, but his tone had already become stern:

"Quick, take her away! Take samples! Send for inspection! Hurry up, run!"

A person in full epidemic medical gear rushed over with a transparent disc, placed little Lila on the disc, and dragged her away. Madam Beland was about to ask another question when another wave of severe abdominal pain hit her. She blacked out, crouched down, and was casually supported by the young man:

"You’re not feeling well, too? Can you walk? If you can walk, follow your daughter; if not, wait a moment, a stretcher will come soon!"

"...I’ll go up!"

She encountered a young man in the center of the lobby. His forehead’s black hair was completely wet, sticking flat to his forehead, he rushed into the lobby shouting:

"Leon, how many patients now? How many healers have come?"

"Sir, 129 patients! The Church of the Nature God sent 9 priests, the Temple of the War God 17, the Spring Water Temple 12!" Leon Carlos reported. Garrett staggered, urgently asking:

"What are the symptoms?"

"Bloating, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea... nausea, vomiting, headache, swelling, lack of energy to open the eyes... Oh, and a few said they couldn’t see clearly, numb limbs, numb lips and tongue..."

Leon handed over a booklet. Garrett scanned it quickly, his mind racing:

Such a widespread outbreak, mostly related to the intestines, undoubtedly an infectious disease... Intestinal diseases are often spread through fecal-oral transmission, but what is the specific transmission route? Food? Water? Sewers? Water pipes? Should

all people be brought in for quarantine?

—Twelve buildings, how many residents?

His thought hadn’t finished when several carriages stopped one after another. Apprentices went up to receive people, arrange transportation, and inquire about their conditions. At the same time, the apprentices who had sent the previous batch of patients down ran to Garrett in the lobby, coming up one by one to report:

"Three patients, one with abdominal pain, diarrhea, one with a fever of 37.8 degrees, headache, vomiting, one with severe abdominal pain, bloating!"

"Two patients, one with abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody stool, fever of 38.5 degrees, one..."

"Four patients..."

Garrett stood amidst the apprentices, watching carriage after carriage pull in with patients, as if he saw everything, yet as if he saw nothing. 129 patients, 133, 135, 139...146... and many more patients to come...

They only had 38 priests...

Among the apprentices by his side, only 12 healers, all apprentices—oh, the girl from the Church of the Nature God recently advanced to a 1st level priest. Plus, a mage apprentice from the medical branch could be used as a healer...

Suddenly, another apprentice rushed down the stairs. A small figure, in heavy epidemic medical gear, could only be identified as a girl by her voice, coming in shouting:

"Any priests? Is there a priest? A little girl is not doing well!"

Madam Beland only heard "little girl not doing well" those few words. She cried out, turned, and threw herself towards the young man in the center of the crowd. Halfway there, her legs gave out, she fell with a thud, but she didn’t feel the pain, rolling and crawling into the crowd, clinging to Garrett’s legs:

"My daughter! Save my daughter!"

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