Chapter 271 - Death of compassion

"CAREFUL!"

Before Suyin could react, Lou held her hand, dragging her aimlessly somewhere. She pulled, but his grip was firm. A second later he lunged at the ground, pulling her along, and threw himself above her. A series of explosions followed, shaking the ground like an earthquake.

Suyin realized it was a grenade attack and Lou had saved her just now. She had barely traveled a few hundred kilometers into the city and faced her first attack already.

As the dust settled, Luo get off from Suyin and dusted his clothes, "Keep your eyes open if you really wish to go back to your county?"

Suyin looked up, feeling a shiver run down her spine at the brutal site of casualties. People lying in a pool of blood, dead. Many still alive, but struggling for the last breath as if still hoping for life. 

"HELP. SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP."

Suyin's eyes fell on a woman shouting in the grim silence. The woman had her hands at the chest of a teenage boy, trying to staunch the blood. 

"SOMEONE PLEASE SAVE MY SON. HELP..."

"Don't," Lou stood in Suyin's way noticing she was about to go. "Now that you are here, you will see this often. Get used to it. Don't put your own life in danger for someone else."

"Can you see any other loving soul here? No. Either people are dead or ran away after hearing the explosion. Nothing will happen, I will just help with the first aid." 

Suyin was speechless. How can someone be this heartless to leave a woman and her son to die? But on another note, how can a country as dangerous as this exist? What can be said when its own citizens were the root cause? 

"By pressing at his chest, you are killing him faster." The woman looked up at Suyin disguised as a bald man with a tattoo on her face. "It's probably a shrapnel which pierced his chest, by pressing the wound it's getting deep inside." She positioned herself near the boy and checked, "Hm, I'm right."

"A-are you a doctor?"

Suyin didn't answer, but placed her ear against the boy's chest. "Diminished breath sound on left. I think his lung collapsed."

The woman, "Om my God. W-will he be okay? Are you a doctor?"

Ignoring the question again, Suyin pulled out an emergency first aid kit from her backpack. The woman gasped seeing Suyin made a cut on her son's chest. "What are you doing? You--"

"Saving him. Interfere, and he'll die within a few minutes because of lack of oxygen. Try contacting emergency services or an ambulance to take him to the hospital. If there is any." Suyin said, "Lou, get me a long tube or straw or something like that. A pen will do." 

"T-There isn't any hospital nearby. The nearest one is two hours away." The woman can't see her son being used as a guinea pig and takes out a phone, "I-I'll call my husband. He'll do something. I'm the wife of the head of Sandrios brigade, keep my son alive, otherwise--" she hissed, and Suyin paused momentarily.

Luo brought a pen, and crouched down, whispering, "I told you not to interfere. Sandrios brigade is one of the most dangerous militia groups here. If anything happen to this boy, you have no idea how brutally we'll be tortured."

********

Four hours. Suyin managed to keep the boy alive for four hours until his father came at the crime scene and rushed him to the hospital, taking Suyin along.

Throughout the way she didn't lose her calm. Not even when the boy's father pointed a gun at her, threatening to do everything worse if she failed.

Unreasonable.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING? JUST SAVE HIM OTHERWISE I WILL KILL YOU." The boy's father snarled holding the doctor's collar.

Suyin frowned. The doctor didn't even try. Wang Sh-- she closed her eyes, stopping herself to think of him. 'No. I hate him. I hate him.' 

"Let's go," Suyin said to Lou.

"I-I-- it's this man's fault. He messed up. I'm innocent." 

The father, "HEY YOU. STOP."

Suyin paused in her steps. That evil son of dog; useless basta*d doctor was throwing her in front of the bus to save his ass. From the corner of her eyes, she noticed Luo reaching for the gun tucked at his waist. She gestured him not to, "We cannot win against them. They are too many in numbers."

"But it can buy you a time to run from here. Don't worry about me."

Suyin brows rose, "Should I say I'm touched?"

"Don't." Lou said, "I'm not sacrificing myself. Just leave and meet me at the old building you saw on the way here." As he was about to move, Suyin held his hand.

"Just trust me." She spun in her boots, taking fast strides at the doctor, "He got internal bleeding and carotid pulse. When I put my hands inside him, his rib had perforated the aorta but temporarily I clamped the bleeding using a zip tie to buy him time. The moment I brought him in, you gave him blood and put him on portable bypass, which is good as a basic but it put him at a risk of paralysis. Instead of rushing him to the surgery to put a graft around the aorta and repair it, you dilly-dallied the time and blamed me. I kept a perforated aorta patient alive for four hours despite a gun pointed at my head, can you? The moment you saw who his father is, you gave up without even trying. What a pus head."

She looked sharply at the father, "Without me, he wouldn't have been alive for more than twenty minutes. Ask your wife, she was the one asking for help, didn't you?"

Everyone in the room tensed. The doctor was the most affected. 

The doctor, "She-she--" 

Suyin pressed on his toe, whispering, "I have many ways to prove it's you who doesn't want to save this boy. Should I tell them there's blood in his tube, and his stats are dropping?" the doctor begged with his eyes, "Good. Now keep your tongue-tied, and roll the boy to the theatre. I have seen your work just now, you are a capable surgeon. I will walk you through the safest process. You can do it."

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO WHISPERING?"

The doctor, "N-Nothing. I was discussing the case. Will take him to the surgery and try my best. This mister will walk-- I mean, explain what procedure he had done on him." 

"I will kill both of you--" the father snatched a gun from one of his men, "--don't dare play games--"

Suyin yanked it away, her grey orbs narrowing, "Keep it in your pants. You are in no position to threaten us. We are your only hope otherwise--"

Just now Suyin realized something had changed in her. Though she can't see a patient suffer in pain, also she no longer cares. Neither was she affected by the young age of the boy, nor by the mother's tears, nor by the threats. She won't even care if dies. 

The compassion that used to run in her soul, her emotions, warmth- the part of her very nature has died. She used to fear performing medical procedures but when she did it on this teenage boy; she did it fearlessly; as if he was not a human but a robot she was repairing.

So this is what you call, death of compassion.

She no longer cares.

********