Chapter II

Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

Angel's Trumpet

.~*~.

It had been twelve days since the Scourge. The air was finally becoming a little more bearable, and nighttime brought along cooler winds to help bring the temperature down by a few degrees. Still, it was anything but clean. Dust, ashes and the unmistakable scent of blood were constantly floating around. The constant mumbling and shuffling of people in the front yard of the hospital had died down, as many of them lost hope and tried to cope with the idea that their family and friends may very well be among the carbonized bodies that the authorities had buried together in a common grave.

Hao had been moved to a large room with seven other beds. Today was his fourth day there. After constantly whining and crying in agony, a man's life had been cut short as another patient took the pole holding his perfusion and pressed it down horizontally across the crier's neck, choking him to death. The nurse who found the murder ran out screaming, but in the end, not much happened. Everyone was glad that the constant sound of whimpers and cries had stopped, so they hid the identity of the criminal. Even so, nobody slept the same way afterward.

Whenever he saw Astrid, she was always in the company of a nurse, or a doctor. Hao had identified her father - there was a striking resemblance, but he wasn't a shaman, as he would have expected. A tall, well-built man with lean, elegant features and cold blue eyes, he was the image of professionalism and dedication. To say that he worked long hours was an understatement, as he only seemed to be taking three to five hours off to sleep every other day. Hao had learned his mind's voice and followed it throughout the day, in only out of boredom - there wasn't much to do while laying in bed.

Earlier today, he caught several thoughts of the medical staff which began to worry him. A bacteria was killing the few survivors of the Scourge, taking advantage of their poor state and resistant to first and second-degree drugs. They were also low on disinfectants, and water was the main suspect for the bacterial infestation.

That evening, Astrid walked in with a wheelchair. It seems she hadn't forgotten about that tour, after all. She helped him into the chair, then slowly pushed him out of the room.

"...We're on the fifth floor, Hao. Did you know? This is where the strongest patients are kept."

Slowly, he shook his head. It felt lightweight, almost turning on its own, so instinctively, he lifted up one hand towards the back of his head. His long hair was gone.

"Was it longer before the Scourge? It will grow back, eventually..."

"It was past my waist... I've never cut it in this lifetime."

The elevator at the end of the hallway was getting closer with each step taken by Astrid.

"As we descend, the patients are in a worse and worse state, so I will need you to wear medical equipment. It's not so much for your own protection, but for theirs. I don't know if you've heard, there's a new kind of bacteria, killing them quickly."

Hao nodded. She helped him into a full suit, and sprayed rubber alcohol over every bit of skin left uncovered. Although it hurt, he didn't say a word of protest. Ashes, blood and decay were in the air, as they took the elevator to the fourth floor. What he heard made his blood run cold. Right to their left, there was a room with fairytale stickers on the walls of princes and princesses and enchanted animals and flowers. Eight children crowded in six beds were trying to keep themselves entertained.

'Ring around a rosie,
Pocket full of posies,
Ashes, ashes,
We all fall down!'

As soon as they noticed the two at the door, a little girl who looked very much like Opacho waved at them.

"That girl!" he gasped. "What's her name? Tell me!"

"Catelyn. Do you know her?"

Hao remained deep in thought for a long moment. It wasn't Opacho... It was Catelyn. Opacho meant the world to him, but Catelyn was just another little girl of African origins. Half of her head was covered in scales, and her tiny body was wrapped in bandages. Astrid waved back.

"Try to smile. They can still see your eyes and they've learned to read you well this way. Children need to see us having hope in order to keep a hold on their own."

Hao tried, but couldn't turn away. There was no way he would smile - it was the last thing on his mind. Catelyn, who looked so much like Opacho, was in pain... because of him. She nearly died, because of him. People were sinful, sure - but children? They hadn't had time to sin yet! They were as pure as the first ray of dawn.

"Can we go?" he demanded, and eventually felt the wheels beneath his chair spinning.

The entire floor was full of rooms just like the first one - children trying hard to stay positive, too innocent to understand that most of them were going to die. They kept hoping to get better, to live the day when they were going to be with their parents again, running barefoot in the grass, splashing in puddles and chasing butterflies.

"...Most are going to die. A few will never walk again. Almost all of them are orphans now, and they've all lost something to the fire - eyes, fingers, hands, arms, feet... Some of them will be disfigured for the rest of their lives if they manage to survive. This is what you've done."

Hao shook his head. "I didn't mean this!"

"Maybe, but you've done it anyway. It's good to know what you've done, so you may accept the consequences."

"Maybe I don't want to know! I've seen enough - I don't want to see anything else!"

Astrid walked in front of him and took his hands in hers. Despite the masks covering their faces, he could imagine her smiling softly - not in a mocking matter, as Hao felt he would have deserved, but in a calming way. Her blue eyes had dark, heady bags underneath, but held the purest joy of helping others in complete devotion.

"The pain will pass, but you need to know. There is power in knowledge, and it may help you heal your soul. Face what you've done and let it burrow deep into your mind, into your very being." The girl stood up and began pushing him towards the elevator again. "Remember that fire had always been used to purify. Let it consume the darkness in you."

On the third floor, Hao saw men and women barely alive anymore, hanging on by a thread. They were connected to machinery. Somebody was screaming in a room in such a chilling way, that he felt his soul shivering in horror.

"...What's there?"

Astrid sighed heavily. "That's the bathroom. Their bandages need to be soaked in water and removed. They come off with bits of flesh and... it's truly horrific. We shouldn't go there, the risk of infection is too great."

"I don't want to go there."

"This means you should... Let's wait here until it's over, then. You can talk to the nurse."

Hao's eyes widened in shock. The screams had stopped.

"She's not dead," Astrid reassured him. "She may have just passed out, or at least, that's what I hope."

It felt like taking a tour of hell itself. Was all this his fault? A nurse rushed out of a room at the end of the hallway.

"Head nurse! Maria passed out!"

Immediately, an older nurse rushed back to where Maria was.

"Maria is a resident," Astrid clarified. "It's the third time this week she faints. I think she's just realizing now the nature of her chosen career."

A few minutes later, he saw the young resident walking out of a saloon, white as a ghost and trembling on her feet. She sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall and panting heavily, as the head nurse gave her a shot of something and left. The nurse returned to the patients, while Maria took a few moments to come to her senses. Hao thought that she wasn't made for this, but despite his judgment, as soon as she could stand, Maria visited the ladies' restroom, and then quickly joined the nurse again, acting as nothing had happened.

Then, right in front of him, a different nurse appeared. She was pushing the soaked wheelchair of a woman - the one he heard screaming before. Burned from head to toe, her blood was already creeping through the fresh bandages. Her frail frame was trembling in chaotic spasms and hoarse sobs and gasps escaped her throat. Half conscious, her mind was spinning incoherently and she wished for death. The nurse was miserable, absent-minded, and she passed then by without noticing their existence.

"Wait!" Hao stopped Astrid when she tried to run after the nurse. "Let her go... I've heard more than enough."

The girl nodded and returned behind him, wheeling Hao towards the elevator again.

"...What could be worse than this?" Hao asked as they reached the elevator.

"Coma. We shouldn't visit the second floor, and there's not much to see there anyway. They're sealed up in sterile rooms, dying. On the first floor, there are waiting rooms for visitors who ask about loved ones and the Emergencies unit. It's very chaotic, and quite disturbing when you care about people as much as I do."

Anxious, Hao watched her hand approaching the control panel of the elevator. He sighed in relief when he saw her pressing the fifth button.

"Did Catelyn remind you of someone?" she asked.

A sense of dread took over him. Hao wanted to hide somewhere and cry. He felt powerless, and he hated that his first instinct was to coward away. This wasn't anything like himself, but at the moment, and in his given state, there was nothing he could do.

"...Maybe."

The doors opened and Astrid wheeled him towards his room.

"Is there anyone you'd like us to contact for you? A family member, or a friend you held near...? Or maybe you want to know about somebody else? I can't guarantee they will be here, though... Many died and couldn't be identified, so..."

Hao could only think of two people - Yoh and Opacho. Would it be worth contacting Yoh? He had every right in the universe to be mad at him. At the same time, how else would he find Opacho? If anyone would have been able to earn her trust, that had to be Yoh. Who else would have been allowed by Opacho into her personal space?

"...There's one person," he mumbled. "He may not want to know about me, though."

Astrid stopped his wheelchair in front of a window. He felt her leaning with her elbows against the handles of his chair.

"Why do you say that?"

"I nearly consumed his soul and wiped him out of existence... Almost killed his friends, and I might have attempted to flirt with his lover a few times, just for fun."

Astrid chuckled. "I see... That's quite a lot to forgive. What is he to you?"

"My younger twin."

"Then, I'd say you have a chance to forgiveness."

"How can you be so sure?" Hao asked, bitter over the reality that he may have lost his only brother because of his behavior. He had been selfish and greedy, and arrogant. All his brother had been all this time was his complete opposite.

"Someone asked about you earlier today."