Healing All I Can

--Hiyochi's Perspective--

"I need two saline bags, all the syringes, IV needles, and any towels you can get," I said.

We had just suffered a blast through the bunker, which was to be expected... but it took out a lot of the people just standing around.

Almost forty people died in the initial blast, and twenty more followed in the collapsing rocks from above.

"Dr. Hiyochi, right over here!" I heard a voice call out.

It was a man, carrying over his wife in his arms. She was badly injured, with several bones sticking out, and a fractured skull.

"Set her on the table, and start ripping cloth off of your body. Your shirt, your pants, anything that can soak up the blood. I'm not playing around here, even if it makes you nude, I need everything you have that can soak up blood," I told the man, as my assigned assistant brought me more towels.

With more blood on my hands right now than ever, I was feeling overwhelmed... but these people, and their lives? They can't be lost just because I can't handle the pressure.

"What do we do?!" My assistant, Jane, yelled out.

"Go around, take note of everybody's condition and any outlying factors. I have to patch her skull up. Tell me, what is her blood type, and is she a Human or Arkian?" I asked the man sitting next to his wife.

"A Positive... she's an Arkian... please, can you save her?" He asked me.

I rolled up my sleeves, pulling a blue syringe out of my satchel while flicking the tip, and turned to him again.

"Do you know who I am? Of course, she'll be alright," I said, plunging the blue syringe into her chest again.

The white and green ones followed right behind, causing a slight twitch in her body, and an immediate scabbing of all of her wounds. I pushed her bones back into the perfect spot, wrapped it in medical bandages and makeshift splints, and set her back down lightly on the bed near the back of the room.

"Woah... is she... okay...?" The man asked me.

I wiped the sweat beading up on my forehead and nodded, putting the syringes back and cleaning them off with a wipe.

"Keep her safe... I don't have the resources to waste on more people. Approximately twelve days are all she'll need to get back on her feet and live a normal life," I told him. I swung the satchel around my shoulder and kept a close eye on my watch.

I moved to the next patient, analyzing their wounds, and looking down at their legs.

Their legs were decimated in the collapse, but the terrifying part was all of the cut arteries hiding in the mess of weird innards on one of the beds.

"Dr. Hiyochi! Please, help my son!" I heard the girl call out to me. I was stuck on his legs, watching the blood flow out...

This is the worst part of being a doctor in a world with strands.

My resources, they're finite. They don't link to my strands, my stamina, my willpower. I am a helpless doctor in a world with Deities. Their Strands make my job obsolete... until this point. When I'm put to the test, looking at a patient I know has the capability to live... but I can't do a damn thing.

Why do I have to make this decision on my own...

"Ma'am... I'll do my best... but his legs are crushed, his veins, arteries, they're cut. If I do save him, he'll lose his legs for the time being until a strand user can get to him," I told her.

"You... you aren't a Strand User?! What the hell kind of doctor are you?" She asked.

Her words rang against the inside of my head. Hearing this talk... no matter what I'm capable of, there are always things I'm unable to do.

I felt absent from my body, seeing so many people look at me as the poor man's Mom began to yell at me.

It felt disheartening, to be the center of the room, without a single clue of how to respond. I had to sit in silence, in humiliation, as she cried her soul out over her son.

What the hell do I do...

Lives aren't so expendable that I can adjust to who to save based on how many resources each one of them would take. That's the one rule Mom taught me.

What the hell do I do...

I kept repeating that question, over and over again in my head, while looking at him.

Then, I moved, without thinking, and pulled out the blue syringe.

"These are finite resources. I can only do this once, and I'm not kidding. I'm a Doctor, I don't use Strands, and I'm sorry it's inconvenient for you. I'll do my best," I told her. I shoved the syringe into the man's stomach and watched the blood come to a close.

I picked up the syringe and handed her towels.

"Block it, do not let it receive any air while the endorphins activate. Wait for about... eight minutes, make that as exact as possible," I told her, walking over to the next.

Fighting Quake alone seemed hard enough, but being cooped up down in a glorified basement without my plethora of resources and medicine was another fight I wasn't sure I could confidently win.

I don't have Strands... that's where this all stems from. If I only had those damn things, I could heal everybody. I'm already healing all I can, but I feel so hopeless in the face of a power like that. It was so overwhelming... it was making me dizzy.

I happened upon the next man, who was destroyed beyond belief. His chest was caved in, and his heart was barely beating. He was twitching every once in a while like he was already dead...

"So, Doc, can you save him?" His friend asked me. I froze in place.

His friend was helpless... holding onto his hand, watching down at him...

I can't do this...

I can't do this...

My heartbeat accelerated.

I can't be the one who picks who lives and dies...

I can't make this decision...

I can't do this...