Read Chapter 10: — VOLUNTEERS

By the time Lena reached the hospital, the lobby had become a human weather system.

Fear moved through it in gusts.

People shouted at registration staff. Others sat motionless behind masks, eyes fixed on the doors to the assessment zone. Security officers tried to keep pathways open for stretchers. Volunteers handed out surgical masks until the boxes ran empty.

Lena went straight upstairs.

Her colleague Sophie Malik had been awake for nearly thirty hours.

“You’re supposed to be in Kingston,” Sophie said.

“Plans changed.”

“Did Peter call you back?”

“No.”

Sophie stared at her.

“You came back by choice?”

“Don’t make it weird.”

Sophie burst into exhausted tears and hugged her despite both of them wearing gowns.

“Don’t contaminate me with emotion,” Lena muttered.

They worked until evening.

At nine, Peter called the respiratory team to the nurses’ station.

He looked older than he had that morning.

“The hospital is opening a dedicated fever clinic and converting the south ambulatory building into a respiratory assessment centre,” he said. “The risk will be high. We need volunteers from respiratory, emergency, internal medicine, and critical care.”

No one spoke.

Peter continued.

“I am not ordering anyone. I mean that. We don’t fully understand transmission. We do not have a proven antiviral treatment. Some of you have young children, elderly parents, partners with medical conditions. Think before you answer.”

Adrian raised his hand.

Lena raised hers.

Then Sophie.

Olivia Grant.

Emily Ross.

One by one, nearly every person in the room volunteered.

Peter closed his eyes for a moment.

He had wanted people to hesitate because hesitation would prove they understood the danger.

Instead they looked at him with the exhausted, terrified determination of professionals who understood perfectly.

“Fine,” he said, voice rough. “Then we do this properly. Nobody becomes a hero by being careless. Protect yourself first, your team second, your patient third. If you reverse that order, eventually you help no one.”

Adrian looked toward Lena.

Across the station, she met his eyes.

This time there was no door between them.