Plague

"What... happened..."

"Something wonderful! A plague broke out in the East District. Who knows how many people have died? There are bodies infected with Mad Rat Disease everywhere now. That's all money!"

Vanessa froze.

"How... could this happen... I told them!"

"Impossible... impossible, impossible! Doesn't Mad Rat Disease not spread in the city? That's what they all said!" Vanessa clutched her head and shouted.

"Of course it doesn't. Who told you it broke out in the city?" Old Razi was startled and looked at the girl hesitantly. "It broke out in the East District. The East District doesn't count as the city... why are you looking at me like that?"

"If the East District doesn't count as the city, then what are all these dead people? Do they count as human?!"

Old Razi froze. He looked back at the bodies filling the courtyard, his throat bobbing.

He wanted to say that of course they didn't count as human. In the ledgers, they were nothing but "meat," "assets," "futures," and "gold pounds"-anything but people.

But something in a long-sealed corner of his heart kept him from saying it.

"You're right in principle," he said hoarsely, his eyes shifting away from Vanessa's gaze, "but this is all money!"

Vanessa shook her head. She stopped looking at Old Razi, shoved him aside, and stumbled into the courtyard.

"How can someone give up making money over a principle?" Old Razi watched the girl's retreating figure through gritted teeth, his face a mixture of exasperated anger and a trace of something complicated he didn't understand himself.

In the end, he stamped his foot and trotted out of the hospital, pulling the Flatbed Cart himself. His muttering drifted through the air.

"Money, make money. I've got to make money, no matter what..."

Vanessa rushed into the pile of bodies and searched frantically.

She had a terrible suspicion, one she couldn't bear to face no matter what-

She hadn't heard anything from Winnie for an entire day.

Thinking of her friend's face, of Winnie, who was as warm as sunshine, made Vanessa's vision darken in waves.

She felt as though a huge, icy hand had gripped her heart, and she trembled all over.

With shaking hands, she pulled open a sack and looked inside.

It wasn't her.

She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, yet also seemed even more anxious. She opened the next sack.

It wasn't her either.

She opened sack after sack. Every unfamiliar face bore the same terror. She felt as though she were walking through a cold forest of gravestones.

"Vanessa!" A shout suddenly came from behind her.

The girl turned to look. It was Doctor Norman.

He was carrying two enormous medical cases on his back and striding outside. His face lit up when he saw Vanessa. "Wonderful! Hurry! Come to the East District with me! There are too many injured people there. We need help!"

"But I..." Vanessa glanced back at the courtyard. She had searched less than half the sacks. There were still so many left. What if...

"No buts! We're going to save people!" Norman cut her off roughly and grabbed her collar. "Have you forgotten how you got to live? You sold your life to the hospital long ago. Now use it to save more lives!"

"Besides, there might be people you know there! Your friends, people who'll help you in the future! There might still be time to save them!"

"Come with me!"

"Save them?" A flicker of life suddenly returned to Vanessa's blank eyes. She practically leaped off the ground. "Yes, you're right! Doctor Norman, I'll go with you!"

As she spoke, she reached for the medical cases on Norman's back, but he pushed her away and thrust a bag of money at her. "Go flag down a public carriage in the street!"

Vanessa paused. "Doesn't the hospital have carriages? Aren't we using one of those?"

Norman's face darkened. "Just go when I tell you to! The hospital's carriages... are needed for something else."

Vanessa could only clutch the money bag and rush into the street. But the public carriages that were usually everywhere were nowhere to be seen!

She looked around anxiously. Just as she was wondering whether to run to a carriage company, she heard a noise beside her, and an exquisite carriage braked to a sudden stop.

This was no public carriage. As Vanessa stood there puzzled, the door opened, and she saw a familiar face.

"You're Wu..."

"I'm Dorothea."

Dorothea glanced back into the carriage. Only then did Vanessa notice that there seemed to be other people inside. Was it a school carriage?

"We're going to the East District to save people! Could you give us a ride... wait, what happened to you?" Only then did Vanessa get a clear look at Dorothea.

Dorothea had always looked calm and dependable, but now she was in a sorry state.

A bandage was wrapped around her head, with faint traces of blood showing through. Her face was scraped, and something seemed wrong with her leg too.

Dorothea ignored Vanessa's words and simply stared at her. She took a deep breath, as though making up her mind about something.

"Winnie's dead."

Vanessa stood rooted to the spot, as though the entire world had frozen at that moment.

She saw the grief in Dorothea's eyes, heard Doctor Norman's approaching footsteps, and smelled the familiar mixture of disinfectant and death from the courtyard-but all her senses seemed to be behind a thick pane of glass, blurred and distorted.

"What... are you saying..." Her voice was so faint it was barely audible. The corners of her mouth even pulled into a stiff smile.

"I saw her body," Dorothea said. She looked up at Doctor Norman as he jogged toward them, then lowered her voice and added, "On the hospital's corpse carriage."

Just then, Doctor Norman reached the carriage, panting. "Hurry! Vanessa, what are you waiting for? Did you find a carriage?!" His gaze fell on the carriage before him, which did not belong to a public carriage company. Then he looked at Dorothea's unusual expression and Vanessa's stunned face, and his expression darkened.

"From Miskatonic University?" Gripping Vanessa's clothes, he took a step back.

Dorothea said nothing. She simply stared into Norman's eyes, her expression icy.

Suddenly, a sigh came from inside the carriage.

"Let him come. He's going to save people."

Dorothea glanced back before stepping aside.

Norman hesitated, then gritted his teeth and climbed into the carriage. He turned back and said urgently, "Vanessa, let's hurry. There are still so many people in the East District waiting-"

"Doctor," Dorothea interrupted coldly, her voice still very low, "her best friend died. She died in the plague."

Doctor Norman's words caught in his throat.

He looked at Vanessa's deathly pale face. His lips moved, but in the end, he said nothing and turned away dejectedly.

"Winnie... where is she..." Vanessa finally found her voice again, every word trembling as she stared fixedly at Dorothea. "Now?"

"In the East District."