District 42-Chapter 174: Behind the scenes part 3

Rurik was done for the time being. He was crying again, looking to the scalpel he stole from the surgery room and pondering if it was worth it to stuck that thing on his throat or try to pierce his heart.

"Life is so boring... And so disappointing as well..." His eyes were even more melancholic than they were, usually. It was because something happened in those rooms that were making him more dejected.

He was sitting on a bench in the room that the nurses generally had their coffee break. Some doctors liked to go there to eat or sleep as well, or to drown the sorrows.

"If I was like Ivar, I would like to have ten or fifteen drinks by now... Actually, without a limit, just everything that my body could bear to have... But maybe these things don’t affect me either."

He had a plastic cup in front of him, with a hot coffee on it.

"If just coffee could give me more energy... But even the buffs don’t work on me... How sad..."

Someone entered that place in a rush, his breath was so fast and unsteady that it echoed through the room. Because of the sniffs, the doctor knew who it was, he didn’t need to look behind to be sure of that.

"Doctor Rurik... Please... I am so sorry..." The Aesir gave a glance over his shoulder. The Doctor who had held responsible for the patient from room 34 was there, kneeling on the ground with a dejected expression. "I am really sorry... If I just..."

"If you just had left me do it, he would be alive... That’s what you want to say, right?" He spoke in a choked voice, in a very low tone.

He raised from the chair, overturning the cup with coffee in the process.

"And I agree with you. I would have done what you couldn’t, because I am better than you. You failed there, doctor." The life left the eyes of that young and emotive man. Rurik was really sorry to leave him in that state, but nothing was helping it. His profession needed realism.

"However, look, there is nothing we can do about it. I can’t be at four places at the same time. I can’t help four people at once. I am better than you, yet I am not good enough to do what I needed to do today.

"Humans are weak, buddy. Everyone will die one day. What you can and cannot do between the time you are born and die don’t matter this much when you look well at it."

He was going to left that place, but the doctor held his wrist, still looking at him with helpless eyes.

"How can you be so good about this? How can you support all this pressure!?"

"I just realized how insignificant and cruel life and humans can be. After this, death seems more like salvation rather than something bad." He pulled gently his arm, and opened the door, exiting that place. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Once he got out from there, he walked through the corridors of the Healing Center. It was already 3 am, and not too many people appeared there at that time.

A nurse tagged along with him all of a sudden. She was not strange, though, but someone who talked sometimes with Rurik.

"Hey, apple. How are you?" She had a kind tone of voice, it was very sweet, maybe due to her age. She was around nineteen, probably, or even younger.

She addressed Rurik as apple for obvious reasons.

"When will you stop to make fun of my hair?" He asked, getting annoyed. "It gives me chills, it’s annoying, makes me want to die."

She giggled at that. For some reason, maybe because she was kind of naive and dumb, she took his depressed comments as humor.

"Don’t be silly now! I am talking serious here, Apple. And I am not making fun of you. It’s an affectionate nickname." He could just see her eyes, but Rurik was sure that she was giving an innocent smile.

He saw that her eyes had dark circles around. The White mask let it too obvious to know.

Just like everyone, she was struggling as well. He wondered how many nights she had been awake because of work, and how many nights she couldn’t sleep because of the anxiety. Rurik knew that situation very well.

"It’s probably been the same as your day. It’s harsh... It’s always harsh, but now it’s getting worse."

She nodded.

"Ultimately a lot of injured people are arriving here with strange injuries. I am starting to get worried. It has an addition in several cases here in the Healing Center. People getting in a critical state was rare, but now we have a case every day. The worst thing is that the news doesn’t inform us and... Ah... Sorry, I was trying to make you vent a bit, but I was the one doing it in the end..." she laughed nervously, viciously rubbing her hair.

"Don’t worry. I am always venting and saying how life sucks, you deserve to complain a bit as well."

She was a bit embarrassed with what he said, even though the doctor clearly hadn’t ulterior motivations with that statement.

"Well, I guess so... Hehe."

What made Rurik the sadder with what she told was that he knew what was going on. Because he was a warrior and had a lot of influence in the army, he knew very well the current situation. Nonetheless, he couldn’t say anything to her.

The district was always very strict in spread unnecessary information around. It could cause panic, and panic wasn’t good, even though they had the masks to control the situation, it would cost a lot of resources to take control of the whole Castle to make it happen, and resources were something that the Jarls, and District 42 overall, couldn’t afford to lose for nothing.

"Don’t worry, ok? Things will go well... Well, they won’t, we are talking about life, after all... But don’t worry."

"You are not good at motivating people, Apple." She giggled again. "I am not worried about the future, by the way. I was more worried about you. Are you sure that you aren’t feeling unwell because of the previous events?"

Rurik shook his head, denying. She nodded with her head, then walked off, parting ways with him.

The doctor sighed, walking towards the room where Canute was.

The Aesir was laying on a bed. Thankfully, Rurik could take care well of him. He had a wound of a shot that scratched, nearly hitting fully, his forehead.

Besides that, some ribs were broken, and also other two shots at the left arm and leg.

Once he stepped further into the room, he noticed that someone else was there. Of course, it was Ari.

"You seem to get along well with Canute." He commented, not knowing how to interact, exactly. "Friends help to make the life look less dejected..."

"It’s nice to see you too, Rurik." The man, crossed his arms while talking to him. "By the way, the clock of this room is anticipated by two seconds. I nearly got confused here."

The doctor sighed.

"I don’t have time for your strange habits, Ari. I need to take care of people. That alone already makes my life the most exhaustive."

After a moment of embarrassing silence, Ari returned to talk.

"Will he be ok? We can’t lose him now... you know why, right?" Once he asked, he raised from the chair he was, walking beside the bed of the fallen Aesir and looking at him with concerned eyes.

"Don’t worry, he is an Aesir like us, he is tough. I already treated Canute a lot of times, and he was worse than it, a lot worse. What really tired me today was that I needed to take care of him and two more others, as well as take the responsibility for someone’s death."

Ari looked with his eyes widened to the red-haired doctor, feeling sorry for him.

"And, yes, I know why he can’t die... None of the Aesirs can’t. If they do, I don’t know how things will go in this Castle... Did you call them?"

"Yes, I called. They are already completely aware of the situation."

Rurik took a cup of coffee and drunk it with one sip.

"Well... And what about the investigations?"

For that question, Ari shook his head, looking disappointed.

"The Sgails did have nothing new by now. Also, the Princess couldn’t find anything. We are blind, basically."

More silence. A pause was needed for them to face that situation.

"It is happening, right? Something that, supposedly, should be impossible..."

"We triggered them, Rurik... There is nothing to do now. Because of all the scheme behind the Midwest battle, we will pay for the consequences. It’s our fault, after all. We put the science above the security of our folk."

The doctor nodded and didn’t say anything more. The same was for the other Aesir, who kept quiet, just staring at his injured friend and wondering how would be the chaos this time.