Invasion of the United States

When Shanni woke up from her slumber, she instinctively reached for the phone beside her, her blurred vision barely making out the time—she had actually slept for more than ten hours straight.

Her long-strained nerves returned to normal, but her muscles felt as if they'd been run over by a truck, sore and protesting at every joint.

The ventilator in the temporary office emitted a buzzing hum, and the smell of disinfectant that wafted through every six hours remained unchanged.

Outside the office, cries and pleas resonated in the ward area, interwoven with the alarm sounds of medical devices, forming an overwhelming wave.

Shanni turned over in bed, intending to rub her face, only to realize she was still wearing her protective suit while sleeping on a makeshift army cot.

She suddenly remembered that she originally just intended to steal a moment of rest, not expecting to fall asleep, and someone kindly made her a bed.

"This nightmare... isn't over yet?" she muttered hoarsely to herself.

She thought that sufficient sleep would revive her spirits, but unexpectedly, the long-awaited relaxation opened the floodgates of her emotions, unleashing days' worth of accumulated exhaustion and despair.

Her memory flashed back to a week ago, when the first batch of patients flooded the emergency room, everyone thought it was just a rampant seasonal viral infection.

The chief physician even joked during the morning meeting, "Things will be better once this peak passes, I'll treat everyone to Starbucks."

Who would have thought that in a few short days, the entire medical system would collapse like dominoes?

Ordinary hospitals no longer had beds available for patients.

Now, stadiums were packed with makeshift beds, public buildings housed patients coughing up blood, even underground bunkers were repurposed into temporary hospitals.

But the organization among United States medical staff was ultimately lacking, once the situation was found wrong, many employees simply didn't show up for work, preferring to hide at home rather than confront the epidemic.

Shanni regretted it too, wondering why she signed up for 'emergency medical' work for triple the pay, and now she's been working in this underground hospital for six or seven days straight.

If she had known, she should've hid at home and looked after herself first.

Getting out of bed, going to the restroom, splashing cold water on her face, the woman in the mirror appeared haggard, long wear of goggles left a circle of dark purple marks.

The office door swung open, a Black head nurse walked in from outside, seeing Shanni awake, she exclaimed as if being rescued:

"Fantastic, Shanni, cover my shift for a bit, let me get some sleep. Without sleep, I might literally die."

The nurse had staggered as she entered, practically collapsing onto the makeshift army cot, not even having time to adjust her posture, she fell into a deep sleep within seconds.

Shanni sighed, changed into a protective suit, tidied her appearance slightly, grabbed her chest radio and shouted to everyone in the ward:

"I am Shanni Costa, Nurse Williams needs to rest, I'm taking over her duties, report any situation to me."

Before her voice even faded, a plea for help came through the radio, "Shanni, patient in Zone 3 is experiencing acute respiratory failure again!"

"Oh my God!" Shanni lamented in her heart, "I just woke up, haven't even had a chance to eat something, regain some energy."

-----------------

As Shanni hurried to the patient's bedside in Zone 3, she discovered someone had taken her job.

A tall figure in protective clothing was holding a tablet, solemnly explaining to the floor nurse:

"This patient has as many as seven underlying conditions, 65% lung function loss, blood oxygen saturation persistently below 80%, there's hardly any salvage value, remove the tube, send them to the hospice care zone."

Shanni was stunned because she saw the patient's identity on the bedside medical record card—Federal Arbitration and Mediation Bureau, Deputy Director William House.

This name seemed unremarkable, but in fact, it represented a third-tier bureaucrat in the United States, equivalent to deputy minister level, and there were only a hundred people like them nationwide.

She had seen this silver-haired politician on TV news, who last month represented the Federal Government in handling the West Coast port strike.

Normally, such a high-ranking official shouldn't be sent to a temporary hospital remodelled from an underground bunker, but amidst the chaotic epidemic, it's indeed possible to send someone to the wrong place.

However, such high officials naturally have privileges, always receiving preferential treatment anywhere, they couldn't be casually sent to 'hospice care'.

Out of responsibility, Shanni stepped forward, wanting to see who was bold enough to make arbitrary decisions about a deputy minister level official.

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As she got closer and saw the face behind the mask, she exclaimed in astonishment: "Victor?"

Holding the tablet was none other than Zhou Qingfeng, who was supposed to be doing laborious work. He had changed into a protective suit, with a new identification tag hanging from his chest.

The tag read 'Victor Zhou', with a suffix 'PhD', and below it, the position 'Clinical Evaluation Specialist'.

Shanni was dumbfounded, her eyes dazzled by the 'PhD' tag, feeling a bit uneasy, worrying whether it would be inappropriate to hastily meddle with a 'PhD'.

Is it possible, that Sir House, the deputy minister, was indeed old and frail, suffering painfully after the virus's torment?

Sometimes... instead of prolonging life with no dignity through intubation, perhaps it is better to have 'hospice care', leaving this world gracefully.

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Zhou Qingfeng turned around, a rosy face behind the protective mask, smiled and said: "Shanni, did you sleep well? The dining area is now providing hot meals 24/7, you should go eat something first."

Shanni stared at the shiny new badge on his chest, instinctively grabbed Zhou Qingfeng's wrist, "Wait, Victor, what's this 'Clinical Evaluation Specialist' about?"